News

Iowa youth gain awareness and excitement for STEM through STEM Day at the Iowa State Fair, among other events and programs led by the STEM Council each year.

Letter from Executive Director

Dear Iowa STEM Community,

Youth take part in STEM Scale-Up Program

Innovation Fund Application Opens September 4

A goal of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council is to support research-based STEM education proven to promote, inspire and engage youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities and to introduce youth and their parents to careers through STEM.

West Delaware students consult with designers on the remodel of their chemistry lab

Autumn is AweSTEM in Iowa

As leaves and temperatures begin to fall, the STEM learning takes off across Iowa each autumn.

Assumption High School students experiencing virtual reality made possible by the STEM Best award.

Iowa STEM BEST Partner brings STEM reality to the classroom

“It’s making learning real.”

This is how Wendy Martin, a science teacher at Assumption High School in Davenport, talks about how her school’s STEM BEST partnership with VictoryVR, a Quad Cities technology company, is changing the way students learn about STEM careers.

Top programs to STEM-spire at least 86,000 young Iowans come fall

April always comes with a fresh start—budding leaves, blooming flowers and for Iowa STEM, a new garden of programs ready to grow across Iowa for youth through the Iowa STEM Scale-Up Program.

Photo of Boone High School Student Jake Gourley

STEM Quality Pre-Apprenticeships to stoke Iowa’s workforce pipeline

For the majority of Iowans who did not enjoy an apprenticeship enroute to employment, the concept might conjure memories of Johnny Tremain from high school history class.

National Science Foundation funded state STEM evaluation wraps up

When the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a request for proposals from across the country for states to compete for funds to design an evaluation system for STEM, the STEM Council was just a year into operation and poised to be the laboratory rat for other statewide STEM initiatives.

Five ways Iowa’s STEM Scale-Up Program works

Drop in to just about any school across Iowa this week and somebody’s bringing a world-class STEM experience to students through the five-year-old STEM Scale-Up Program initiative of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.

Local workplaces seeking STEM teacher expertise

If you are a teacher, you have probably wondered how your mathematics or science topics are used behind the walls of the manufacturing plant across town, or what kinds of roof-beam geometry and cement wall chemistry the construction crew uses to build that bridge up north or those new lofts downtown.

FRC Team in West Delaware County Community School District

Putting STEM first in the FIRST Robotics Competition

You might think it takes an Einstein-like mind to build a robot from scratch—or at least some years studying the craft. Yet, a program offered on the 2016-17 STEM Scale-Up Program menu is making it common for high school students to be the new, young minds behind these innovations. It’s called, “FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).”

Grant Wood Elementary School receives Code Iowa Technology Award

Thousands learn to program through Code Iowa

The room is eerily quiet. Students’ eyes are glued to their computers, geared up with headphones and a mouse to take on the challenge. Suddenly, a young girl’s hands go up in the air as she yells, “Yes! I did it!”

That’s the “Hour of Code.”