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WATERVILLE — More than 250 participants from education, industry, government and nonprofit organizations gathered Nov. 18 at Colby College to discuss best practices in STEM education in Maine. 
The theme of this year’s STEM summit, hosted by the STEM Collaborative, was “Building Bridges: Developing Partnerships to Build Capacity for STEM Education in Maine.” Brooke Haycock from the Education Trust was one of the keynote speakers. She discussed important education issues such as equity and access through performance.
Andrew Sandweiss, a Bangor High School alumni and current Yale University student, spoke about how important STEM education was for him to prepare him for success in college and beyond.
Jerry Ellner, the national director of high school development at Universal Technical Institute, shared with the audience his work in career and technical education across the country.
Participants were able to also attend a variety of breakout sessions about STEM education in Maine. The participants engaged in dialogue throughout the day regarding the most recent recommendations from the Maine STEM Council. In the afternoon, the six K-12 teacher finalists for the 2016 STEM Education Innovation Challenge Grant Competition shared their fast-pitch presentations.
Thanks to the Maine Space Grant Consortium, five of the finalists were awarded $2,000 to implement their innovative projects, and one finalist was awarded $5,000.
Nicole Hewes, a second-grade teacher at Troy Central School, was the grand prize winner of the grant challenge and awarded $5,000 for her school. Her innovative project was entitled “Building Blocks: Using Legos and Minecraft to Teach Computer Coding.” As a result of the grant funding, she will be able to engage her second-graders in computer science activities and make computer science activities available to third- through fifth-graders as well.
The $2,000 grant winners included Rosalee Lamm, Portland High School; Maya Crosby and Ken Stevenson, Lincoln Academy; Christel Driscoll, Franklin Sames, and Thomas Fournier, Lincoln Middle School; James Willigar and Sally Allen, Whitefield Elementary School; and Amanda Ripa, Messalonskee Middle School.
