Southwest Indiana STEM (SwISTEM) Resource Center

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SwISTEM Resource Center Logo

Provenance: Allison Grabert, University of Southern Indiana
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The Southwest Indiana Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SwISTEM) Resource Center strives to facilitate the growth of a robust STEM workforce by partnering with local business, industry, and K-16 educational institutions.

Pott College of Science, Engineering, & Education, University of Southern Indiana
Established: 2008

http://www.swistem.org

Vision and Goals

The mission of the SwISTEM Resource Center is to provide STEM resources to K-16 educators within the seventeen-county region to augment student preparedness for undergraduate STEM coursework, and to ultimately increase the size and proficiency of the STEM workforce. The SwISTEM Resource Center promotes hands-on and inquiry-based education through teacher professional development, equipment lending, and student-centered STEM outreach activities.

Center/Program Structure

The SwISTEM Resource Center is embedded in the Pott College of Science, Engineering, & Education at the University of Southern Indiana. The staff consists of one (1) F/T director, two (2) faculty who receive an annual stipend to serve as coordinators, and one (1) P/T permanent equipment lending service circulation coordinator.

Description of Programming

The Pott College has a long-standing record of success in promoting, supporting, developing, enhancing, and improving STEM education in the southwest Indiana region. The success, breadth, and depth of these outreach and engagement efforts resulted in USI and the Pott College being named as the Southwest Indiana Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SwISTEM) Resource Center in 2007 and also receiving a regional leadership award in 2010.

SwISTEM Student-Centered Outreach Programming

Each year, the SwISTEM Resource Center hosts the Tri-State Science and Engineering Fair, which draws over five-hundred potential young scientists and engineers from throughout southwest Indiana.

The Girls Only (GO) STEM! Program focuses on helping high school girls overcome barriers and stereotypes faced while preparing for, and pursuing, STEM-related careers through a five-day residential summer camp experience that incorporates Holiday World & Splashin' Safari as a laboratory.

The USI FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Qualifying Tournament is an official FLL tournament that is held each year in November at USI. This robotics program is designed for over one hundred, nine to fourteen-year-old students and is intended to spark interest in science and technology while teaching employment and life skills.

In the summer of 2013, the SwISTEM Resource Center hosted the first week-long Engineering & Manufacturing Creativity Camp (EMC²) at USI. Since then, seventy-two high school students from six counties in southwest Indiana have attended this five-day camp to experience the design processes and robotics principals that lead to the creation of consumer products.

The USI Regional SeaPerch Challenge is held each year during the month of February in conjunction with Indiana SeaPerch, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) - Crane, and other industrial and education supporters. During the 2013-14 cycle, the challenge transitioned to the USI/Crane State SeaPerch Challenge and grew to accommodate over 120 teams and over 500 students.

The SwISTEM Resource Center launched the Middle School STEM Innovation Camp during the summer of 2015. This camp offers middle school students the opportunity to "Think Outside the Box" by exploring a variety of techniques and activities from across multiple STEM disciplines in an engaging week-long day camp experience on the campus of the University of Southern Indiana. Participants will walk away inspired to continue their pursuit of a solid STEM Education and with a more defined understanding of career possibilities involving science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

SwISTEM Equipment Lending Service

The SwISTEM Resource Center recognizes that teachers need access to scientific equipment in order to provide hands-on STEM activities to their students. To meet this need, the SwISTEM Equipment Lending Service lends a large assortment of laboratory equipment and mathematics/science manipulatives to teachers in the SwISTEM service area completely free of charge. Equipment is typically loaned in weekly increments. Patrons of the service also are given access to curriculum consultation, lesson plan development, and on-site instructional assistance by the staff of the Resource Center. In the fall of 2013, the SwISTEM Resource Center expanded the geographic footprint of the Equipment Lending Service to include seven additional counties surrounding the NSWC-Crane. The satellite office is located in the WestGate complex and managed by Crane STEM coordinators.

Over the last several years, the SwISTEM Resource Center and USI emerged as the regional leader in the K-12 STEM community through multiple engagement channels. Activities and services such as those highlighted below have allowed all K-12 southwest Indiana educational entities the opportunity to provide high-touch, enriching STEM activities both in and out of the classroom in efforts to cultivate the curiosity and excitement of future scientists regardless of demographic and socioeconomic circumstances.

SwISTEM Teacher Professional Development

Teacher Professional Development--The SwISTEM Resource Center offers a nurturing, team-oriented approach to STEM education for teachers who want to remain current in their STEM fields. Recent research-based practices in STEM subjects are offered to teachers participating in SwISTEM professional development opportunities tailored to SwISTEM outreach programs and the K-12 Indiana Academic Standards.

Successes and Impacts

Our free equipment lending service is our flagship program and likely makes the most impact for teachers that have been charged with ramping up STEM education in the state of Indiana but have not been offered the tools to meet the challenge. Over 80 teachers per year utilize the SwISTEM Equipment Lending Service. This number is expected to rise as we expand the service to reach an additional seven (7) counties. Over 3,000 pieces of laboratory-grade scientific equipment, mathematics manipulatives, and STEM instructional aides are available to informal and formal educators. Each academic year, nearly 3,000 pieces of equipment are circulated throughout the region. We are also very proud of the relationships that we have built with several regional STEM industries and businesses as we work to fortify our line-up of STEM outreach activities. During the 2015 academic year, impact numbers for all SwISTEM outreach events rose to 1,211 students. The Center has also conducted research showing that students participating in the these events are beginning to matriculate into the undergraduate STEM disciplines at a rate of 66% and are entering these programs with higher combined average SAT scores and/or higher average ACT scores than other cohorts. Furthermore, the SwISTEM cohort shows higher first-year retention rates at USI as well as higher first year cumulative GPAs.

Elements Contributing to Success

First and foremost, our university leadership identified the region's need for a new generation of STEM professionals. They also understood that the effort must be initiated before students enter the university. Secondly, the strength of our collaboration with STEM business and industry has be fundamental in perpetuation of our existing programs and the birth of new initiatives. We also give a significant amount of credit to the teachers in our region who reach out to the university for direction in solving the national STEM problem through a regional approach. Our teachers are committed to their professions and their students.