One of the event’s co-hosts, Delegate Adrienne Jones, speaks to the crowd.

On STEM Family Fun Night and Parent Summit, down one hallway of Dogwood Elementary School, students launched paper rockets. In the cafeteria, students crawled into an inflatable planetarium to learn more about the stars. At stations throughout the first floor, students challenged themselves with activities that tested their knowledge of fractions, geometry, and other subjects. At still other stations, students designed and "built" their own insects, studied the life stages of mosquitoes, and worked with whiteboard technology.

Meanwhile, the parents of these students - from Dogwood, Featherbed Lane, Hebbville, and Milbrook elementary schools - gathered in the gymnasium at this November 17 event to learn more about the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program at their children's schools.

To learn about density, students constructed aluminum foil boats and added as many pennies as possible until the boat sank.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, STEM unites Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in supporting enhanced teaching and learning through intensive teacher recruitment, professional development, and teacher education.

The revised STEM project started in January 2005 and will continue through December 2008. It is based on a BCPS partnership with UMBC that began in 2002. The $13 million project involves seven schools including Woodlawn High School and the four elementary schools (Dogwood, Hebbville, Featherbed Lane, and Milbrook) and two middle schools (Southwest Academy and Woodlawn) that feed into Woodlawn High.

The hallway at Dogwood was lined with activity stations and full of students eager to participate.

During the event, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC and the co-author of Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women. spoke to parents about the opportunities STEM offers students and the many ways that parents can support their children's academic success.

The event was hosted by Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston, Delegate Adrienne Jones, and Dr. Hrabowski. As all three took their turns at the microphone, each praised the large and enthusiastic turnout of more than 300 parents and students, and each emphasized the important role parents play in the educational process.

Keynote speaker and event co-host Dr. Freeman Hrabowski offers ideas on ways to support student success. BCPS Superintendent and event co-host Dr. Joe A. Hairston sits in the center of the front row.

STEM Project Director Kimberly Grabarek said, "Planners of this event were hoping that parents would be able to observe some of the types of the math, science, and technology activities being offered to their children.We wanted to reinforce to parents the importance of being involved in their children's education and that we are really interested in partnering with the parents, working together for the best for the students."

In addition to activities for students and a program for parents, the evening featured door prizes, light refreshments, and a visit from the Parentmobile (a traveling resource center for BCPS parents). Free shuttle transportation was provided from Featherbed Lane, Hebbville, and Milbrook elementary schools to Dogwood Elementary School.

As an aerodynamics activity, students used foam cups and straws to construct and fly airplanes.

For Grabarek, one particular moment sums up the success of the evening and the success of the project. At the end of the night, one mother, obviously inspired by the evening's keynote speaker, stopped to talk to school staff about mathematics and science instruction. Meanwhile, her son was busy creating a paper rocket. After a short while, he turned to her, and said, "Less talking and more working."

"That's exactly what we hoped to achieve," Grabarek noted. "Students and their parents and guardians excited about science, technology, engineering, and math."

Students prepare to enter Starlab, the BCPS portable planetarium.

 

 

 

Story by Diana L. Spencer, Communications Officer, and photos by Kara E. Calder, Chief Communications Officer