Nearly 700 Idaho educators to attend summer i-STEM Teacher Institutes

Idaho educators will learn about science, technology, engineering and math-based topics and how to use the information in their classrooms during six low-cost workshops held around the state in June.

Nearly 700 educators are expected to attend this year’s i-STEM Teacher Institutes, which will be held:

· June 16-19 at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

· June 16-19 at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene.

· June 17-20 at Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls.

· June 23-26 at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

· June 23-26 at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.

· June 24-27 at the College of Western Idaho in Nampa.

The workshops are organized by the Idaho STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) initiative, or i-STEM — a partnership of educators, government agencies, organizations and private companies working to improve STEM education in the state. I-STEM members include Idaho National Laboratory, universities and community colleges, the state Department of Education, Idaho State Board of Education, Hewlett Packard, Intermountain Gas, Micron and Idaho Power. More information is available at http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/istem.

This is the fifth year i-STEM has sponsored the K-12 teacher professional development summer institutes. Since 2010, the number of workshops has expanded from two to six and hundreds of educators and administrators have participated. The Lewis-Clark State College workshop is new this year.

"We have a wonderful team across the state that is helping sponsor and support this large-scale educator professional development opportunity," said Anne Seifert, executive director of i-STEM and INL’s K-12 education coordinator. "The i-STEM program is a nationally recognized placed-based, integrated STEM professional development model that helps educators further develop their STEM content knowledge through context."

During the workshops, participants choose a specific topic to study such as energy, aerospace, space, sustainability, food safety, computer science, manufacturing, robotics, environment, agriculture, gold mining, or health care. They attend sessions taught by STEM experts. Educators also participate in general sessions to learn how to integrate STEM, 21st century skills, career awareness, and the Practices of the Idaho Core Standards into all the subjects they teach. Participants receive continuing education credits and resource kits.

The i-STEM institutes are funded and supported by a state of Idaho Math and Science Partnership Grant; Idaho’s state-run universities, community colleges, and technical schools; Northwest Council for Computer Education; DEQ; and industry partners like Micron, Hewlett-Packard, Idaho Power, Intermountain Gas, Simplot, Battelle Energy Alliance and others.

INL is one of the DOE’s 10 multiprogram national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of the strategic goal areas of DOE: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.

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