National STEM Day, celebrated on Nov. 8 as a play on the word “innovate”, serves as an opportunity to celebrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers and to inspire youth to pursue careers in the field.
“National STEM Day provides a time for all to celebrate STEM and help inspire all students to learn and explore STEM fields and careers," said Justin Lewis, bureau chief for the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council at the Iowa Department of Education. “The STEM Council is proud to play an integral part in building strong foundations through STEM education for Iowa’s students and promoting the wide variety of STEM opportunities right here in Iowa through our signature programs.”
From over $30 million in legislative appropriations since 2020, the STEM Council offers exemplary educational STEM programs like the STEM BESTⓇ Program, the Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program and the STEM Scale-Up Program to students and educators across the state.
The STEM BESTⓇ Program offers funding to schools to develop school-business partnerships that provide real-world opportunities for students to explore and develop future-focused skills needed for post-secondary success. Since 2020, STEM BESTⓇ has expanded into 75 new schools with a total of 615 community partners through 142 STEM BESTⓇ awards statewide.
The Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program builds bridges between Iowa’s workplaces and STEM educators across the state by equipping them to work at local businesses, organizations and other workplaces alongside knowledgeable and skilled employees during the summer. Since 2020 the Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program has offered 360 externship experiences to Iowa educators with over 120 workplace partners in advanced manufacturing, information technology, conservation, biosciences and more.
The STEM Scale-Up Program aims to expand student learning in STEM and connect it with key industries and major career fields in Iowa like agriculture, advanced manufacturing, information technology, finance, insurance, medical and more. Scale-Up provides high-quality STEM education programs to PK-12 youth in and out of school along with training for educators to implement effectively, reaching around 100,000 students each year on average.
To find out more on the Department’s STEM efforts, visit the Iowa STEM webpage or engage through social media on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.