How does the program work?
In addition to the hands-on workplace experiences and engagement with STEM professionals, educators dedicate 1 day each week during the summer to share their experiences with SRI colleagues and collaborate to create lesson plans for their classrooms. The benefits are two-fold:
- Upon completion of the program, teachers have shared how these workplace experiences have exponentially increased their understanding of the modern STEM workplace and have impacted their classrooms in multiple ways, including changes in instructional practices, increased student engagement and higher levels of academic achievement.
- Students are introduced to curriculum that are based on real world, real time STEM workplace applications, learning how concepts in the classroom are relevant to research and STEM work resulting in increased student interest in STEM college and career pathways
Since its inception, the program has partnered with and/or received support from a variety of recognizable institutions including NYS Wadsworth Laboratories, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, SUNY Poly and Albany College of Pharmacy as well as Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, IBM, Global Foundries, National Grid, the Center for Economic Growth, General Electric and Vicarious Visions.
And the program benefits go beyond these educators and their classrooms as the lesson plans created through these experiences are presented at education conferences statewide and around the country.
These lesson plans, available on the right hand side of the page, are designed to be standards-based, real world applicable STEM topics and use skills aligned to STEM college and career preparatory. They are divided into the 4 STEM categories: science, mathematics, technology and engineering. Some of them easily overlap as many STEM activities do and teachers are encouraged to download them and be used as they best fit into specific classrooms. If you're a STEM educator looking for ideas to introduce new lessons into your curriculum, feel free to take these lessons and either introduce as is or modify for your students.
Questar III is proud to offer this as a resource to educators throughout the Capital Region-and beyond!
