Our STEM Hub recently launched a new collaborative to help support rural educators who teach science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). The collaborative is place-based, meaning that it seeks to build community within a specific geographic location. So far, 23 educators from Clatskanie, Jewell, Rainier, Scappoose, Seaside, Tillamook, and Warrenton-Hammond school districts are participating. These educators teach a variety of subjects at various grade levels. 

Bianca Valvezan, a project management specialist for the STEM Hub at Northwest Regional Education Service District, and community partners Cristina Trecha, a facilitator of the Oregon Rural STEAM Leadership Network, and Amy Schmid, an environmental educator of awe and curiosity, are facilitating the group. The cohort is centered around participants' personal and professional goals for what it means to engage in place-based education on their campus and nearby spaces, including supportive materials and opportunities to contribute to a new regional handbook on the subject.  

"Through this project we are elevating facets of STEM identity and employability skills while also integrating social-emotional learning skills within project-based learning," says Bianca.

Site visits are held throughout the program to share expertise in integrating these outdoor learning experiences at school and coach participants to be stewards of place-based education at their schools. We are connecting outdoor spaces with makerspace projects and nature journaling, while anchoring the work in the Nine Essential Understandings of Native Americans in Oregon from the Oregon Department of Education's Tribal History/Shared History curriculum.

This curriculum is not required to be taught at every grade, but it is vital for place-based education and the Northwest STEM Hub's commitment to culturally responsive programming, Bianca says. 

Participants of the Northwest STEM Hub's place-based collaborative met at the Five Oaks Museum in Hillsboro in October. The educators visited the museum's exhibit on local tribal history and participated in nature journaling outside. Photo courtesy of Bianca Valvezan. 

Participants left with a classroom kit that contains materials for 25 students, a teacher kit with supplies for outside facilitation, and seven books for continued learning and activity inspiration. Participants raved about the experience and one participant shared that it was "one of the best professional development experiences I've ever had."

Monthly Zoom meetings are being held throughout the year, and the year-end meeting will be in-person on April 5 at The Boathouse in Garibaldi where the group will explore their place-based education hub and expand their ideas into the new school year.

"We are looking forward to the waves this collaborative will produce throughout our region and are so proud of what we’re accomplishing together," Bianca says.

If you are an educator in Clatsop, Columbia or Tillamook county and want to learn more, please email Bianca Valvezan. Visit the group's Northwest Place-Based Collaborative website and access curated Tribal History/Shared History resources here.