The beginning of a new school year is always exciting and this year in is no different for schools in the state of Tennessee. With the launch of three new STEM hub schools across the state, Tennessee is revealing itself as a leader in this exciting and innovative movement in education to increase rigor, bring awareness to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math and to prepare students for future jobs that will support local communities. The three new schools have brought the state to a total of five operating STEM hub schools with one in the proposal stage and all six representing a different region of the state: Kingsport, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Cookeville, Nashville, and in the future Memphis. The state landscape of STEM education is looking good.
The committed network of educators and business partners or, TSIN, Tennessee STEM Innovation Network has been established to promote and expand the teaching and learning of STEM-based education in K-12 public schools across the state. The new website proves to be valuable for the STEM initiative in the state of Tennessee and I'd like to share their most recent news story. It hits especially close to home and has become (and will continue to be) an invigorating and integral part of our community.
(This excerpt is taken from the Tennessee Department of Education newsroom. To read the entire article or to go to the TSIN website follow this link: http://thetsin.org/home/4562775318)
"Two weeks ago I stood in the gymnasium of Innovation Academy of Northeast Tennessee to participate in the ribbon cutting of the region’s new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) middle school. An overflowing crowd of excited students, parents, business leaders, and elected officials lined the gymnasium and wound through the hallways to hear how the school was going to stand out in a region already bustling with STEM activity. When the oversized gold scissors cut the ribbon at Innovation Academy to formally declare the school open, it also unleashed the power of the statewide STEM network into the region.
Innovation Academy is a platform school of the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network (TSIN)....Platform schools are different from typical schools in Tennessee. The TSIN schools are aligned to common design principles and serve as laboratories of innovation for STEM education best practices to be shared throughout the state via the Network. Many platform schools put technology in the hands of students on day one, design classrooms with moveable tables and walls to encourage student collaboration, and develop cross-curricular activities to incorporate all subjects into a new way of teaching and learning. It’s also common to find a local STEM professional, such as a chemist from Eastman Chemical Company or a mechanical engineer from Nissan North America, actively participating in classes and lending his or her expertise in a hands-on student project."
[This is TSIN Director of Client Engagement Wesley Hall's post from this week's SCORE Sheet]
