The Baylor University School of Education kicked off its new program STEM+ Camp Launch this week for Transformation Waco fifth graders.
The camp at the Mayborn Museum is a learning experience for students and area teachers alike. It immerses students in engaging science, technology, engineering and math activities just as they are starting to be tested on science-related learning in school, and it gives educators a chance to track whether the effort translates into better test scores.
Co-founders and co-directors Sandi Cooper and Suzanne Nesmith, curriculum and instruction faculty members at Baylor, said they have both always favored hands-on, inquiry-based experiences for students, which led them to create STEM+ Camp Launch.
“We want to expose young people to STEM and to experience it in a way that’s really positive,” said Cooper, a professor and associate chair of the curriculum and instruction department. “That helps them grow as a learner, but also helps them see that, you know, they could choose a career in STEM. And we feel like if it starts earlier in elementary school, that that’s going to open a lot more doors.”
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Along with the camp, the co-directors are also hosting teacher professional development sessions for a combination of teachers from elementary schools in Transformation Waco, an in-district charter system in Waco Independent School District; and teachers from Baylor professional development schools, which are area schools where Baylor education students do field work that progresses to co-teaching in classrooms by their senior year.
The teachers taking part go to the Mayborn one day during each of the three weeks the camp will run. There, they observe the instruction of the students and then engage in their own hands-on activity for the students.
“What we’re hoping is that we inspire the teachers who come to actually do this in their classrooms so that it will make an impact,” Cooper said. “Even if it’s one classroom at a time, we want to try to make an impact. And for these children, to be able to come even if it’s just one week out of the summer, we hope that it will have an impact and plant the seed for STEM.”
Another aspect of the professional development is sharing literature to go alongside math and science. On the first day, the co-directors led a discussion about Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to go to space.
“These teachers need to help their students recognize, oh, there have been others before me, and recently that have not only gone into STEM but who’ve had to overcome a lot of barricades to get into it,” said Nesmith, an associate professor and associate dean of undergraduate education. “And just the impact of sharing these stories that can help students to see oh, ‘I can overcome it if there’s a barrier.’”
The camp consists of one-week sessions for each of the three Transformation Waco elementary schools, Alta Vista, Brook Avenue and J.H. Hines. 20 incoming fifth graders from each are participating in their school’s designated week.
Cooper said they chose this age group because fifth grade is the first time they will be tested in science on STAAR test, a standardized state exam. Given that they have not studied the material before, Cooper and Nesmith will be able to see if the students who participate in the camp perform better on the state exam.
“So by looking at these STAAR test scores at the end of fifth grade for the students that participated in STEM+, and those that didn’t, we’re hoping they all do fabulous, but maybe see some difference, because they are just thinking in little different ways,” Nesmith said. “Or maybe something occurred during the STEM camp that they remember and that they are able to recall and apply it in on that exam.”
In the future, Nesmith said they hope to make the camp accessible to more students and teachers. The camp is funded by the Cooper Foundation and is free to the students. Teachers who participate receive a stipend.
Nesmith said the curriculum is based around concepts typical fifth grade students struggle with, including space, science and geometry.
“Their interactions with all of the concepts are occurring in ways that build their understanding,” Nesmith said. “And they’re constantly being asked, ‘What are you noticing? What are you wondering?’ Because that’s what we want them to be doing at this stage.”
The students are also being called scientists and engineers by their teachers so they can start to believe that those are career paths they can achieve if they want to pursue it.
“If you’re using the same processes and skills that these individuals use as adults in their careers, you are a scientist, you are a mathematician, you are an engineer,” Nesmith said. “And it helps to build that identity.”
At the end of the week, the students will eat at a Baylor dining hall to help them further envision themselves as collegiate scientists and mathematicians.
“For the students, I think what we want to see is that it has a positive impact, or a change in their recognition of themselves as being able to think in creative ways, being able to ask questions and seek answers,” Nesmith said. “We want to see that they can become problem solvers.”
Di Copeman, STEM+ Camp Launch master teacher, said the camp provides an environment where the students’ questions can be prioritized, given the flexible curriculum. This way, she said the students “start to see that their questions are important.”
As a fourth and fifth grade math and science teacher at Midway ISD’s Spring Valley Elementary School, Copeman said it is common to get bogged down as teachers trying to make sure they spend the right amount of time on each subject.
“We sometimes neglect the questions that they have because of our schedule,” Copeman said. “And this week, while we have a schedule, our team came together and said, there’s really nothing more important than these kids asking questions and getting answers. Because what it tells them is that, as a teacher, I am not the only scientist in the room. They are the scientists as well.”
Copeman said throughout the week, it has made her smile to hear the students’ “oohs and ahhs” as they discover answers to their questions.
“All of these questions just normally come tumbling out of their brains when they see a CO2 car take off like, ‘What are you kidding me?’” Copeman said. “And then yesterday, a sweet little girl said ‘I didn’t know it was going to be this fun.’”