Educators Inspired by STEM Workshops

Venomous animals, potatoes and LED lights, Minecraft, Lego robotics, and worms all came together at Loma Linda University (LLU) during the 4th annual EXSEED Conference. EXSEED stands for Excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, (STEM) Experiential Education, and brought together educators from across the country and abroad including; Jamaica, Curacao and Bonaire. Loma Linda University President since 2008, Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH was instrumental in creating the EXSEED Conference. The purpose of EXSEED was created as a way for LLU and Adventist Higher Education to partner with K-12 educators on the topic of science education. Provost Ronald Carter, PhD, Marilyn Eggers, PhD serves as the Director of Educational Effectiveness and co-executive director along with Doug Havens, MS, EXSEED who was the Director of this year’s event were also involved with coordinating the EXSEED Conference. Doug Havens previous experience has been a high school science teacher in Escondido and taught at Escondido Adventist Academy. He stated, “We have strong science resources on this campus and STEM was an area we felt we could provide inspiration and support for teachers. The idea was to use the universities resources to strengthen the K-12 teachers.” 100 people came and 50 more people joined during the workshops. The conference took place over five days from June 23-27th on the campus of Loma Linda University. There were workshops for participants to see different ways in which technology and science can be used in the classroom to engage and excite students and presentation topics given by researchers and educators. The first plenary keynote speaker was Charles, F. McMillan, PhD, a nuclear physicist and the Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He gave a presentation on National Security, STEM and K-12 education. The second speaker was Richard Osborn, PhD, Vice President of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and he spoke about the changing ecology of K-G education. Thursday June 26th was a day filled with workshops, question and answer sessions, and collaborative projects. Malou Saint-Ulysse is a Principal at Meadow View Junior Academy; an Adventist school located in New Jersey who came out for the event. Saint-Ulysse along with her husband, Sadrail Saint-Ulysse, who is the Superintendent of the New Jersey Conference, both attended last year’s event as well. This year they were so impressed with the information from the workshops, they were excited to come back to experience the conference for the full week. Principal Saint-Ulysse shared, “It’s enriching, and a wonderful exposure to STEM ideas.” The workshops made STEM education, “so achievable without having major funding and being able to incorporate it into the classroom while using various resources that are available out there.” Saint-Ulysse attended a workshop which used potatoes, oranges, lemons with nail and copper wire along with a volt measure to power a LED light. The workshop used inexpensive items, Saint-Ulysse shared that using science and math in projects in projects converges learning in a way that helps make learning more engaging and fun for students, while exposing them to different careers. The workshop in Lego Robotics was inspiring to administrator, Randy Nomura who is currently the Principal for Greeneville Adventist Academy in Tennessee. After attending the workshop on Tuesday, he wrote the board at his school to help fund the Lego Robotics so his school can implement the projects and information he was given during the workshop. Nomura went to the 3-D Printing workshop and shared, “It’s amazing,” it was amazing to watch these things come out of machines. He had a little plastic chain link that was created by the 3-D Printing machine. Each participant who came to the event was given an iPad and this was used to help aid in the information given in the workshops such as, “iPad Integration in the Mathematics Classroom,” and “Studying Sound and Light with the iPad.” During the Conference, the participants were asked to get into small groups and collaborate together to present a STEM project to the rest of the groups. Dean Edwards is a teacher at Cornerstone Christian School from Bonners Ferry, Idaho and was working with Louie Parra who is a teacher at Mount Pisgah Academy in Candler, North Carolina. They were both creating a rocket using Diet Coke (caffeine-free), Mentos, cardboard, and paper. Edwards and Parra used their iPad to create a trailer of their upcoming video and were going to film it and then post it on YouTube. Edwards shared, “It’s to teach students Newton’s Law on action, reaction, and acceleration. From filming it and looking at the frames per second, students will learn about velocity.” Edwards also shared, “Kids love it when things blow up, and that’s why action movies are so appealing to them.” Edwards said using a hands on approach in the classroom helps students make lasting connections between the topic and application, ”What a student does will allow them to remember longer and more than just teaching and what you tell them.” In addition to learning new ideas and topics to bring back to the classroom, participants also took away personal knowledge. Hendrey Isenia is a Superintendant of the Adventist School Board in Curacao and shared,” We are dealing in our country IT in our schools. It’s a way for our teachers to develop more in the field because we have a lot of information in the Adventist side and when we speak about STEM, it’s important to deal with the same matter in our country.” He went to a workshop titled, “Nervous Anatomy: Where the Dead Teach the Living” and said, “It was a new experience with how the body functions and learning how information goes from the brain to all parts of the body. For me, it was very important, [and] getting that information was clear to me what my problem was because I have physical health problems.” LLU has a Medical Simulation Center that has high fidelity mannequins designed to mimic a patient in a real life scenario so students can learn the appropriate skills in a given medical situation. Conference participants were taken in groups to see what the Medical Simulation Center can do for students and patients. This opportunity was given as a way for educators to go back to their classrooms and tell students the various ways technology can be used for in real life.