the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Energy (ORISE) is hosting THREE competitions! Check out all the opportunities for you to win awesome prizes below! 

Kid Inventors’ Day Student Competition

January 1^st – January 31^st  

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education (ORISE) wants to celebrate with all K-12 students by letting them express their creativity and problem solving skills through an invention. We are asking that you use the engineering design process and develop your own invention to solve a problem in your community. TWELVE prizes will be awarded with three winners per grade band. To enter the contest, follow ORISE on social media, fill out this survey.

The contest deadline is Monday, January 31^st, 2022. Make sure to look at the rubric to know what we expect for submitted projects.

Math Music Madness Lesson Plan Competition

January 1^st – January 31^st  

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) wants to see how you can incorporate music into a STEM lesson plan to help build a better understanding of a subject. All K-12 teachers are invited to create and submit a math or science lesson plan that incorporates music for a chance to win a mini-grant! Three teachers who submit lesson plans will be selected to receive mini-grants up to $1,500 to help buy equipment for their classroom! To enter the contest, follow ORISE on social media, fill out this survey.

The contest deadline is Monday, January 31^st, 2022. Make sure to look at the rubric to know what we expect for submitted projects.

January Social Media Competition

January 1^st – January 31^st  

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) wants you want to know your answer to the question: Who is a STEM role model to you and why? To enter the contest, follow @ORISEconnect on social media, fill out this survey, and comment your answer on the post.

The contest deadline is Monday, January 31^st, 2022. Make sure to look at the rubric to know what we expect for submitted projects.

For more information about both of these contests and our previous contests, visit HERE for educators and HERE for students.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail us at STEMEd@orau.org.

eCYBERMISSION is an online STEM competition for students in grades 6 to 9. Students work in teams of 2 to 4 under the guidance of a Team Advisor to choose a problem in their community to explore with science or solve with engineering. Throughout the competition, students work on team building and interact with STEM professionals virtually while competing for state, regional, and national awards. eCYBERMISSION supports phenomenon-based learning, directly aligns with Next Generation Science Standards, and is administered by NSTA (National Science Teaching Association).

Visit our website, www.ecybermission.com, to learn more about this no-cost, virtual STEM competition and how it can be incorporated into an existing curriculum. 

Start the New Year off by submitting student based projects or receiving feedback to the ones you finished over the holidays!  It's not too late to get teams organized and working to meet the January 31, 2022 project deadline! The countdown and time management to the deadline can be energizing in the New Year. Let us help you and give you feedback! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------   As a reminder, all students will receive an entry gift for participating int his year's competition and the top 30 teachers that submit projects from the most number of teams, will also receive an amazing gift an acknowledgment. For more resources to help you finish up projects that you have started or learn more about the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition, please visit the website at www.exploravision.org.

K–12 Grants For In-Classroom Teachers, Money for STEM teachers! Toshiba America Foundation Project-Based Learning Grants for Grades K–12 educator Award: Three categories: Up to $1,000, Up to $5,000 and more than $5,000 Application Deadline: For K-5 grades: Up to $1,000 on Oct 1; For 6-10: Up to $5,000 on first day on Mar., June, Sept. and Dec.; More than $5,000 on May 1 & Nov. 1

Want to see 60+ science demos in 60 seconds? If so, check out our 2021 Science Claus is Coming to Town edited version! We had a blast doing this - enjoy.youtu.be/lVPqS6NAzOE

Head into the holidays with the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Competition!

It's not too late to get teams organized and working to meet the January 31, 2022 project deadline. Access lesson plans to help get you started with engaging K-12 students in STEM, see below to view, download and/or print. 

Teams submit their projects online by January 7th can also emailexploravision@nsta.org to request a 15 minute virtual coaching session on tips to further enhance projects. 
Virtual coaching sessions will be held the week of January 10th between the hours of
9:00am-6:30pm ET
 

Educators - feel free to check out these amazing lessons plans and resources.

• Problem Solving Using Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision - Grades K-6
• Problem Solving Using Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision - Grades 7-12

Hear from educators regarding the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition by accessing the videos below.

• 2019 ExploraVision 10-12 grade National Winner's Coach, Serena McCalla
• 2019 ExploraVision 4-6 grades National Winning Team's Coach Dawn Caldwell
• 2018 Exploravision K-3 National Winner's Coach, Carmen Garcia
• 2015 ExploraVision 7-9 National Winner's Coach, Samantha Grzelak

If you are interested in learning more from other STEM educators and would like to engage in a monthly virtual discussion, email exploravision@nsta.orgto connect! Meetings occur monthly on Tuesday evenings!
 

Teach Climate Network Workshop: Understanding the power of COP26

Wednesday, November 3rd, 12:00-1:00 PM CT

Register Here

Learn about COP26 (United Nations Conference of the Parties) taking place in Glasgow, Scotland November 1st-12th. Discover the importance of policy and collaboration in finding climate change solutions, and learn about resources to connect your students with the climate change solutions developed at this year's U.N. Climate Change Conference. Educators will also leave with best practices and strategies for effectively using Climate Generation’s COP26 Educator’s Toolkit.

All workshop registrants will have access to the workshop recording.

#TeachClimateChat Connect with educators attending COP 26

Thursday, November 4th, 12:00-1:00 PM CT

Register Here

Join the Climate Generation delegation of educators live in Glasgow, Scotland, as they attend COP26 (United Nations Conference of the Parties). Join the discussion about the importance of their work in empowering all members of society to engage in climate action, through education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these issues.

We are hosting the Annual Molecular Medicine In Action on Sunday, March 6, 2022 with the overall theme focusing on Bench to Bedside. Our program is FREE of charge, sponsored by Lilly Endowment and conducted by Indiana University School of Medicine faculty. Molecular Medicine In Action symposium is a hands-on program for high school students to experience the methods scientists use in unlocking and modifying the genetic code of diseases. You are currently one of our sponsors Sponsors | MMIA (iu.edu), and we would love your help getting the word out to science teachers that are apart of the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc.

Our overarching goal of the symposium is to increase students’ excitement for science, increase the number of students that ultimately select science as a career choice, and provide hands-on learning in a state-of-the art medical research environment. 

We invite you to nominate your sophomore, junior and/or senior high school students to participate in the program, which will provide 50 high school students from across Indiana a half-day full of activities, lectures, career panel discussion, and hands-on at home guide experiment. Student must apply online, please use the following link to access the MMIA website and student application: http://mmia.iupui.edu

The Application and Teacher Recommendation DEADLINE: November 12, 2021. Selected students and parents will receive program participation notification no later than January 17, 2022.

In Michigan Virtual’s podcast called “Bright”, they interview teachers located across the state of Michigan who have been doing an outstanding job in dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. We get to hear their stories of how they tried new approaches to reach their students virtually, failed and succeeded in various areas, and we think that now more than ever their stories deserve to be told.

While the podcast interviews educators in Michigan, the content is relevant for anyone involved in K-12 education. The podcast was launched in early 2021 and new episodes are published every 1-2 weeks. Many of the episodes are applicable to current events as well as challenges that students, parents, and educators will face in years to come.

So if you are interested in the podcast, we would certainly appreciate it if you would consider giving it a listen! If you would also consider subscribing via Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, we would really appreciate it! Subscribing makes a big difference in helping us promote our episodes to a wider audience.

Registration is open for the seventh-annual Indiana STEM Education Conference on THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 at Purdue University! The 2022 conference will include IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL participation. Registration can be completed athttp://www.purdue.edu/conferences/STEM2022. 

• The conference will start at 9:00am and end at 3:15pm (EST).
• The cost for registration is $100 for in-person and $50 for virtual.
• A box lunch and refreshments are included with the in-person registration fee.
• Participants will learn about effective lessons, partnerships, assessments, and education strategies in STEM.

In-person participants will need to follow the Protect Purdue guidelines (https://protect.purdue.edu/). At the present time, participants are required to wear a facemask while indoors. The guidelines are subject to change. Email announcements will be sent to communicate changes.

The theme for the 2022 conference is “STEM Education: Making Giant Leaps.” Presentations will include strategies to engage students in solving significant problems through STEM education. 

The 2022 conference includes special keynote speaker Dr. Briony Horgan, a scientist on NASA’s newest Mars rover Perseverance! Dr. Horgan is an Associate Professor of Planetary Science at Purdue University. Her research program uses data from NASA satellites and rovers to understand the surface processes that have shaped Mars and the Moon. Dr. Horgan will discuss her experience becoming an interdisciplinary STEM researcher, her experience with research with the Mars rover mission, and her thoughts about encouraging future STEM researchers through the K-12 schools.

The conference will also include:

• Over 50 presentations on STEM curriculum, STEM instruction, STEM careers, and STEM research.
• A resource webpage with presentation slides and handouts, vendor handouts, and research posters.
• Networking with STEM education vendors.
• Access to recorded presentations following the conference.
• Professional Growth Points for teachers.

Interested in presenting at the conference? Have a classroom activity, a STEM resource, or STEM research to share? We are accepting proposals for in-person and virtual presentations, in-person only presentations, and prerecorded virtual-only presentations. Presentation and research proposals can be submitted at https://forms.gle/4WadHzUNKbMg6zAe8. Research posters and briefs will be published as proceedings through Purdue e-Pubs. Proposals are due on November 5, 2021.

Three animated videos on the STARDUST MYSTERY YouTube Channel and the videos and short stories online at TheStardustMystery.com/the-coronavirus/present a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about genetics, DNA, RNA, messenger RNA, viruses, mRNA vaccines, cell biology, and, considering the virus variants, evolution and “survival of the fittest.” These resources were created in the Stardust Mystery Project funded in part by the National Science Foundation. 

The Cosmic Kids use their time, space, and size change travel ship to follow the COVID-19 Coronavirus and an mRNA vaccine in a human body to see how they capture our cell’s ability to produce proteins from RNA and messenger RNA (mRNA). 

The three YouTube videos are:

• A Coronavirus story for Kids 1: How Grandpa Got COVID-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOa9UM54UJ8
• Explaining COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: An Animated Story for Kids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BMtxetKAt4
• Explaining our Bodies’ Factories: An Animated Story for Kids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkSziKkiCoo

 

These three videos and 14 other science videos are companions to The Race to the Big Bang award-winning illustrated science adventure book. The story takes place during the pandemic and its young characters cope with the disruption to their lives. The book includes nonfiction science stories about planet Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, the Big Bang, the Covid-19 coronavirus, and the mRNA vaccines. 

 

The Race to the Big Bang book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Its prequel, The Stardust Mystery, is also available on Amazonand Barnes & Noble.

 

The COVID-19 Coronavirus JIGSAW LEARNING PAGE with 8 short stories, videos, and a lesson plan with student questions is available along with three other pages on our website at https://thestardustmystery.com on the Educators tab. 

 

These are the four JIGSAW LEARNING PAGES:

·       Stardust (atoms): https://thestardustmystery.com/all-about-stardust-atoms/

·       The History of Earth: https://thestardustmystery.com/history-of-earth/

·       Our Place in The Universe: https://thestardustmystery.com/our-place-in-the-universe/

·       The COVID-19 Coronavirus: https://thestardustmystery.com/the-coronavirus/

Sponsored  - National Science Foundation Project
Http://TheStardustMystery.com