Thank you all for each of your contributions to an absolutely wonderful year. Below are some highlights, and with them, the lessons learned.
1. Serving others is the heart of all great ideas!
I was honored and thrilled to coach a wonderful group of 5 students at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic to enter and win best in nation in the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Winning came with the opportunity to work with a mentor in the programming language of MIT App Inventor, to work out bugs and details, and ultimately to modify original ideas to fit within the constraints of time, money, access to software tools, and skills. What impressed me throughout was the commitment of the kids to the goal of saving lives with technology. What ultimately motivated the final product was the commitment to keep each member of the team on the path of growth in technological skill and innovation. The experience left all of us inspired to keep working toward meaningful goals with the lessons learned.
2. Mentors are crucial, particularly in our book projects, and we are so VERY grateful!
Getting books finished requires a lot of hard work and critical feedback from mentors. Thank you to all the mentors, research fellows and their families who stayed up late, met weekends, and worked over holidays to get these books done. We are currently working on seven books this year with some exciting mentors.
Dr. Teri Dennkovich, chief science officer and CEO of Folia water, is mentoring Anna Rutkowski, senior at CWNC, writing about the invention of Folia Water’s silver nanoparticle infused paper that cleans water.
Sr. Lyn Szymkiewicz, CSJ, beekeeper and environmental scientist, is working with Maya and Kennedi to write Barbee the Bee visits Sr. Lyn’s Beehive.
Deb Davis from Paws with a Cause is helping Ava and Charlie write Charlie the Seizure Response Dog.
Dr.. Joseph Ayoob and Dr. Emily Furbee are working with Carter and Hoby writing about the Genetically Modified Fruit Flies in Dr. Ayoob’s Lab at the University of Pittsburgh.
EMT Tim Vignere and artist/teacher Kelli Keriotis are helping Brian finish his emergency response book Max and the Tornado.
Mentors from NASA and a college physics professor are being contacted now to help with Sean’s book on the Cassini-Huygens probe and Kelli Keriotis’s new Kindergarten book on Isaac Newton’s discovery of color.
That doesn’t begin to acknowledge the mentors involved in all of our STEM Competition teams, our websites, and our YouTube Shows.
3. We are all still kids at heart!
Even faculty research fellows are over the moon excited when a mentor replies to their inquiries and offers them assistance. Ten of our thirty research fellow projects this year are with faculty fellows, teachers who are working on a meaningful project. Some have been in the lab with me when a reply came in from a mentor and their reactions were the same glee and excitement the kids have. I am so humbled to work beside and assist so many passionate teachers willing to go a step above in working on these projects and sharing their enthusiasm with me and their students..
4. Knowledge is changing, rapidly.
There was a moment on one of the STEM Career Tours, when Scott Sneddon, the president and CEO of Sharp Edge Labs, was explaining some of the technological discoveries in biotechnology behind his company’s products. The AP Biology teacher (and research fellow Amy Murray!) on our tour, one who finished her college education before the human genome was mapped, whispered to me, “This changes the way I am teaching.” He was explaining the interior of cells. His explanation included knowledge that was not known 10 or 15 years ago, knowledge that changed the way we think of cell development. One author claims that 50% of what we know of biology was discovered in the last ten years. Textbooks are out of date before they are published. Even online databases of biological knowledge are updated at such a rate a monthly backup is incomplete. Keeping up with the exponential growth of knowledge is a gauntlet thrown down not only to those of us in education, but everyone. This challenge has opened up a world of possibilities for gifted and talented kids and teachers to become scientific communicators of what is happening in the worlds of academic and corporate research and development.
5. Holding onto talent is hard.
One of the saddest moments of this past year was saying goodbye to research fellows who graduated Baden Academy. Many were students I had worked with for four years. They helped shape what the research fellows program has become. Some were still working on projects. But without a visionary educational leader like Lauren Bensink, CEO of Baden Academy, who has the audacity to fund space and time into a school day to work with these extraordinary students, ongoing work with them has been difficult or non-existent. Other visionaries have stepped up this year; Luke Crawford, principal at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, and Margaret Rueffle, principal at Divine Providence Alpha School, who have funded fellowships for several amazing teachers, parents who have paid out of pocket for the students participation in STEM competition teams and STEM learning, and two anonymous corporate donors who have sponsored several kids seeking project support. Sometimes a lesson is a question to ask, and the the big question I take into 2017 – how do we hold onto that talent. How does Grow a Generation become a strong enough community of superheroes who are able to continue to support one another in innovation and worthy legacies?.
This year has celebrated extraordinary milestones!
- Twenty-Two Research Fellow Projects in one school completed including four published books.
- Thirty new Research Fellow Projects started in three schools.
- Several awards and recognitions for our STEM Athletes (CWNC Verizon App Challenge Best in Nation, Baden Academy Future Cities competition team Best City Layout, STEM Camp student Anastasia for honorable mention in the Future Engineers competition, Baden Academy Ted-Ed club speaker Owen for his honorable mention in i5Digital Video competition, and Gavin, Cameron, Lexi and Courtney who won respectively at the Pittsburgh Science and Engineering Fair a Collegiate Award. the ASM Materials Education Foundation Affiliate Award and The Garimella Family Sponsor Award, an Affliate Award from the U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps (Office of Naval Research), and a Collegiate and Category award).
- 3rd grade students Anthony and Christopher Molecular Gastronomy videos retweeted in Dubai and Spain by professional molecular gastronomists! I know – I am too excited about a retweet – but I am so excited! You should have seen the boys looking up Dubai on a map!
- 6th grade Tim’s TED Talk “It’s a Brick,” publicized globally in the Ceramics Tech Today.
- Twenty-One companies and nine college graduate programs toured with students and faculty as part of the STEM Career Tours with two student blogs about the tours published.
- The growth our our STEM Camps program into the G-MITES STEM program with seven new STEM Lords and Ladies developing curriculum and inspiring a new generation, including Matt Dado, Joel Cilli, Sara McMillen, Sarah Prewitt, Mark Romutis, William Cody and Angela Fishman.
- The ongoing support of my phenomenal right hand, project manager, and Galactic Star Lord, Leah Kennelly and the addition of Gina Tennerelli as STEM Tour Coordinator and Starship Captain.
I am thrilled with our growth and thank you for the parts you have played!
