Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
There is the NE (Portland) STEAM Coalition https://nesteamcoalition.org/
In Vancouver, WA, LULAC-LNESC https://www.lnesc.org/
Portland Minds Matter https://mindsmatterportland.org/
Oregon MESA https://oregonmesa.org/
Metropolitan Family Services https://www.mfspdx.org/I had a conversation with author Dr. Anna Switzer https://annaswitzer.com/ her book License to Learn is based on her experience teaching outdoors. She was interested to learning more about the summit.
This Tuesday, Jan. 14 I will be attending the STEM Power Hour Networking event at The Multnomah Arts Center. We will discuss popular topics on education, STEM, STEAM, and Oregon. Sharing our experiences and learning about others!
I think this networking event will be a perfect opportunity for me to share about the summit.I have contacted Minds Matter Portland and the Executive Director told me that they would be interested in the meeting next year. Minds Matter is a Saturday program that enrolls students starting as high school freshmen for four years until graduation. Minds Matter help students to get into college and during high school summer vacation, students are sent to summer camps in universities around the USA. For more info, this is the website
https://www.mindsmatterportland.org/
I will email the Chair of the Board of TechStart to get them involved. Start Tech is focused on robotics. This is their website https://www.techstart.org/
I will email iUrbanTeen to see if they are interested. https://iurbanteen.org/My final thought is that we can have a hybrid Expo/Summit where we add the summit to the event of last April, to invite the other organizations working on STEM+A to the table and in this way, we can launch “the coalition” as an organization.
We are now doing Thursday and Friday from 3 to 5, tutoring, college prep, and SAT-test prep at BESThq
I am happy we have this forum!
This coming Wednesday Sept 16, 2026 at 10 am we will have a meeting of the Portland Metro STEM Partnership PMSP. I will keep you posted.
This is a great video, thanks so much for sharing!
I can’t think of a personal example/experience related to autism. My personal experience is related to dyslexia. I think that I am dyslexic even though I have not been “professionally” diagnosed. I have issues with the order of numbers and, as a kid, had reading issues. Now, in my Kindle, I have a special font developed for dyslexic readers that makes reading a more pleasurable experience. I love reading!
Times are different now, and more opportunities are opening. We now know from new data from psychology that some of the labels previously used have to be adapted. For example, in autism, we now have a broad range in the spectrum, and some students can perform well in STEM given the right support. One more reason that I am so supportive of this effort to create a coalition of organizations that have diverse resources.
The one influence that I see affected my students getting into higher ed STEM was the misconception of what it is. Thanks, Eric for bringing this discussion into light.
One example is students thinking they want to be medical doctors. Part of the misconception/misunderstanding is the idea that you get there in no time and with no effort. Even though learning is fun it takes time and effort. This is complicated because technology today allows us to have prompt actions like fast food, without recognizing that there is a lot of work behind the scenes even in “fast food”. The organization and equipment necessary take a lot of time to be developed.
And, of course, the short attention span that modernity is inducing in our brains.On Tuesday 1/14 I attended the Portland Metro STEM Partnership and announced the Summit. https://www.pdxstem.org/ Several in attendance including the organizer of the meeting were very interested. I gave them the link to the coalition, so I hope they join. One was Penny Jahrous for Oregon Inst. of Technology who is organizing an AI meeting in May.
Dr. Anna Switzer https://annaswitzer.com/product/license-to-learn/ is interested in the summit
Next Tuesday, Jan. 14 STEM Power Networking at The Multnomah Arts Center. We will discuss popular topics on education, STEM, STEAM, and Oregon. Share our experiences and learn about others! This is perfect to promote the summit.So far I have seen mainly STEM (robotics in particular) but many are becoming STEM+A
iUrbanTeen, for example.Others that may join on Zoom:
Carlos Banks (iUrbanTeen) carlos@iUrbanTeen.org
Teo Ramirez (Youth outreach) teo.ramirez@greshamoregon.gov
Molly Radany (Owner of Experiment PDX) curious@experimentpdx.com
Reed Harrison execdirector@mindsmatterportland.org
Elina Maria Bedoya elina@latnet.orgI forgot to mention that I also talked with Ashley DaSilva at the Oregon Science Olympiad org booth. I emailed her our information and invited her to join.
-
AuthorPosts
