RiSE Center Hosts Collaborative Student Science Summit

More than 200 students in grades 6–9 throughout the state will take part in an out-of-this-world collaborative engineering design challenge Saturday, April 11, at the University of Maine.

Hosted by the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education at the University of Maine (RiSE Center), the 2015 Student Summit encourages participants to successfully transport a “life-form” through explorations on an earthquake-ridden planet in another solar system. Student engineering teams will share ideas and design solutions to accomplish the challenge, which will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Estabrooke Hall.

“The student summit is a chance for my students to experience being on a college campus while also working with students from other schools on a space-related engineering design project,” says Amy Taylor, ninth grade science teacher at Hermon High School and one of the lead organizers of the Summit.

“As teachers, we value the chance to collaborate with other science teachers from other schools through the RiSE Center. We thought it would be cool to give our students the same opportunity to work on science with their peers from around the state.”

A total of 60 grade 6–9 physical science educators will assist at the summit and take part in a chemistry professional development session with Mitchell Bruce, UMaine associate professor.

Members of Kappa Delta Pi, an International Honor Society in Education at UMaine, and students in the Master of Science Teaching (MST) Program at UMaine will volunteer at the event.

Teachers of participating students have been engaged with Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP) for five years through a grant from the National Science Foundation. The partnership between UMaine and 28 school districts seeks to strengthen rural science education in Maine by supporting a professional development community for science teachers and improving science teacher recruitment, retention and preparation at UMaine.

It also seeks to advance teaching, teacher knowledge and student learning and utilizes a challenging curriculum that encourages schoolchildren to study more science. Visit umaine.edu/mainepsp for more information on the program.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777