“Full STEM Ahead!” That’s the title of a recent Afterschool Alliance report on how afterschool programs can support in-school STEM learning. One organization that has fully embraced the rallying cry is Vermont Afterschool. Last year, the statewide organization landed a $120,000 grant from the Noyce Foundation for “afterschool and STEM system-building strategies.” A key component, says Tracy Truzansky, Vermont Afterschool’s project manager for training/STEM initiatives, is encouraging wider use of the EiE afterschool curricula Engineering Adventures and Engineering Everywhere.

Every Thursday on the blog we bring you teaching tips or news about resources you can use in your classroom

Every Engineering is Elementary (EiE) unit starts with a storybook that sets the context for the hands-on engineering design challenge. You can show the pictures to your students the conventional way, by holding up the book for everyone to see . . . but you can also download storybook illustrations from our website and project them on a screen or SmartBoard. Beyond the convenience of this approach, storybook illustrations are a terrific teaching tool for English Language Arts, and especially for the English Language Learners in your class.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)’s second annual “STEM for ALL Video Showcase” opens today, and you’re invited. This event is like the Sundance Film Festival for STEM education research: it includes more than 150 NSF-supported projects, all sharing short videos that showcase their work in STEM education. A production by Engineering is Elementary’s talented videography team is one of the entries . . . and there’s a “people’s choice” award. So please visit, view, and vote!

We hit a landmark recently—more than 10 million students have been reached by the Engineering is Elementary curriculum. Not all of that learning happened during the school year! Increasingly, we’re hearing about districts adopting EiE as a summer school curriculum. One of these districts is Colorado Springs District 11. Here’s their story.

It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week! Personally, I‘m sending retrospective appreciation to my mom, a first-grade teacher who made a big difference to lots of kids. Back in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Mom taught at a Title I school in Massachusetts . . .  where she was considered a renegade for insisting that science be an important part of the school day. Her students grew seedlings, hatched baby chicks, and engineered a lunar lander from a refrigerator box.