15
Feb

January in Review

2nd Integrated STEM Leadership Alliance

On January 21st, Dr. Carol O'Donnell, Director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSSEC), presented at the 2nd Integrated STEM Leadership Alliance in Asia to 60 international education organizations. The theme of the virtual event was, “Reimagining Integrated STEM Education: Amplifying Agility and Transformational Collaboration for a Post-Pandemic Asia”. To get a copy of Dr. O'Donnell's presentation, "Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals to Teach Inquiry-based K-12 STEM Education in a Post-Pandemic World," contact EchevarriaK@si.edu.

 

The Global Classroom

O’Donnell presented at another session of The Global Classroom. The session focused on how 2021 brings new hope. O’Donnell shared information on how students can protect themselves from COVID-19 and demonstrated hands-on activities students can do at home to understand the underlying science of COVID-19 protected behaviors. Hosted by Scarisbrick Hall School in the UK, the Global Classroom event gave students from around the globe the opportunity to come together virtually. Over 14,000 students attended the live event synchronously; another 2.4 million viewed the recording asynchronously. To view the presentation, go to: https://ssec.si.edu/global-inspiration-dr-carol-odonnell-smithsonian-january

Da Vinci Science Center & Allentown School District

On January 25th, Da Vinci Science Center and SSEC provided a full day of professional development to prepare teachers from Allentown School District (ASD) to launch SSEC’s science curriculum in their virtual classrooms. O’Donnell presented on STEM Literacy and SSEC’s LASER model. ASD is the third largest urban school district (out of 500 districts in Pennsylvania) and serves students from 74 countries speaking 47 languages with nearly 90 percent household qualifying as low income. SSEC also provided 2,574 fourth and fifth grade students and their 124 teachers in Allentown School District with “Smithsonian Science for the Classroom” hands-on science curriculum to complement their virtual science lessons

 

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Member Agency Coordinators Meeting

O’Donnell presented at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Member Agency Coordinators meeting. These meetings are used to introduce education resources to water agency representatives who work with school districts across the state of CA and who teach all aspects of water science, history, and engineering. O’Donnell’s presentation was focused on pan-institutional SI Distance Learning and Digital Resources. There were 37 Water Districts who participated in the meeting. To use this pan-institutional resource, which highlights Smithsonian Distance Learning and Digital Resources from the Smithsonian and was developed in collaboration with SSEC, SCLDA and OUSE, go to: https://ssec.si.edu/distance-learning-and-digital-resources-smithsonian

 

 

Image courtesy Hattie Coyne & Getty Images

Related Tags

About the Author

Kate Echevarria
Human Resources Liaison

Kate Echevarria is the Human Resources Liaison for the Smithsonian Science Education Center. She is responsible for handling recruitment, internships, performance management, and all aspects of human resources at the Center. She was previously the Executive Office Manager at SSEC for 10 years. Prior to SSEC, Kate was in human resource management having worked for an international hotel chain, the U.S. Government, and a science non-profit.