Welcome to the Engineering STEM Identity (ESI) Community! ESI is a grant program funded by a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation grant award. This three-year program responds to an Absolute Priority, as outlined in the Federal Register, which improves STEM Education by “redesigning course content and instructional practices to engage students and increase student achievement.”

ESI acknowledges that students determine whether or not they want to pursue STEM fields by middle school. This decision results from how well students feel they identify to STEM, or how strong their STEM identity is. The goal of ESI is to support students in building a strong STEM identity in the middle grades so that STEM careers remain a possibility as they advance through education.

To achieve this goal, ESI focuses on implementing professional development for teachers and course content within the classroom. ESI support for teachers includes professional development about Modeling Instruction, STEM Coaching, coaching to help utilize STEM Professionals within the classroom, and communication with school and district level administrators. ESI course content implemented for students includes Modeling Instruction, access to STEM Professional role models, student-driven engineering designing, and classroom-to-classroom interaction via interactive video conferencing. 

Together, the goals and activities of Engineering STEM Identity build a model for improving STEM education to address the national shortage of STEM professionals. To see a video summarizing ESI, click here.

ESI leverages a variety of technology to support the goals and success of the program. Some of these components include the use of Interactive Video Conferencing (IVC), an innovative learning management platform, tablets, and science data sensors.

IVC promotes accessibility of resources and increases engagement of rural district participants while establishing a scalable model for brining STEM role models into classrooms. 

To maximize in the sharing of data and information throughout IVC experiences, LearningMate partnered with ESI to bring a tablet-based learning management platform into classrooms: GoClass. GoClass supports teachers by improving student engagement, sharing resources, collecting information about student understanding, and facilitating student collaboration. 

Student science experiences will be enhanced by the use of Vernier digital science equipment, including motion detectors, temperature probes, pH sensors, light sensors, and data analysis software. This equipment will interface with tablets and support students in “doing science like scientists”. During IVC interactions with other students, classrooms will be able to share data electronically so that they are able to mimic the process of discovery in the scientific community.

Throughout June and July, 36 teachers and 4 STEM Coaches from 10 school districts within Maricopa County completed the Engineering STEM Identity (ESI) Summer Modeling Workshop! In partnership with the American Modeling Teachers Association, this ESI professional development focused on supporting teachers with learning middle school science Modeling Instruction, and was completed in-person at MCESA and via interactive video conferencing.

By delivering professional development in this way, the ESI program strives to better understand how to make high quality professional development opportunities accessible to a variety of districts, especially those in rural communities.  When asked about their experience in the workshop a teacher said, “It was interesting to see this way of delivering instruction.” Another shared their appreciation for being able to attend the professional development from a location close to their home, “I have a better understanding of Modeling Instruction after completing the workshop. Thank you for your flexibility." To learn more about Modeling Instruction, view this video.

ESI Staff closely observed teacher learning and interactions throughout the workshop to collect information that would help to improve future professional development offerings through IVC. As a result, ESI Staff has developed additional routines and procedures to help with this in the future. ESI Project Director Jacquelyn Kelly, comments on the process, “It is so exciting to learn these new things about how professional development can look in the future. Every time we are able to improve, we gain insights of how to better support teachers so that we can all work together to maximize student success.”

In the last few months, ESI has been busy ordering and delivering technology to partner districts. Throughout June and July ESI delivered 22 IVC carts, over 800 tablets, and 16 class sets of Vernier lab equipment to the 16 schools in the 10 ESI school districts. This technology and equipment will be used to support the 25 teachers and over 2,500 students participating in the ESI program.  A special thank you to the MCESA IT Department and the district IT departments for supporting in this roll out!

A key component of ESI is student STEM Identity development via interaction with STEM professional role models. By using IVC, ESI facilitates these role model interactions in the most time-efficient manner possible, making it possible to connect STEM professionals at their work computer with classrooms—no travel required!

Gale Beauchamp, Business Education Partnership Coordinator, is busy networking with STEM business professionals to recruit these relevant role models. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more, please contact Gale at Gale.Beauchamp@mcesa.maricopa.gov or (602) 697-2060.