A poster on the wall of Sara Rossman’s STEM classroom at St. Theresa School in New Cumberland illustrates the expectation she has for her K-8 students: that they don’t succeed on the first try.
Yes, Rossman wants her students to fail, but then to find a solution, just like the perseverance that stimulated Thomas Edison’s discovery and gave way to his attributed quote on Rossman’s classroom wall: “I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
“In STEM education, I give students guidelines to a project or experiment and it’s up to them to run with it,” Rossman says. “I often tell them that I hope whatever they’re working on fails the first time, and they say, ‘What? Are you serious?’ I tell them, ‘Yes, I’m serious. You’re going to learn so much more if it doesn’t work out the first time.”
Rossman is one of 27 educators selected for the STEM Pioneers Teacher Corps, an initiative of the Penn State College of Education’s Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS) that elevates STEM education across the Mid-Atlantic region.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in STEM occupations has grown more than 20 percent in the last decade and is projected to increase by more than ten percent through 2033.
As part of the STEM Pioneers Teacher Corps, Rossman will spend the next four years delving deeper into cutting-edge science and engineering content through summer institutes, monthly virtual sessions, curriculum implementation, leadership roles in workshops, hosting schoolwide STEM events, and delivering presentations at state and national conferences.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” Rossman said. “I’ll be able to spread STEM education not just into my school, but into the diocese as well, since I’m a member of the STEM Curriculum Committee for our Catholic schools.
Rossman was selected from more than 70 candidates in the Mid-Atlantic region, based on an in-depth application, reference letters and interviews that demonstrated her dedication, creativity and leadership in STEM education.
While she is helping to prepare her students for the science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers of the future, she’s also focusing on the ways in which they’re benefitting from STEM classes today.
“There are so many important skills for them – fine motor skills, critical thinking, creativity, learning how to work in groups,” said Rossman, who earned her STEM accreditation through Millersville University and takes classes with Penn State’s CSATS program.
STEM projects at St. Theresa’s this year were limited only by imagination. Lessons included writing code for micro bit sensors to mimic breathing patterns, measuring the effectiveness of various filters to help purify water, testing methods for the dispersal of dandelion seeds, and calculating the velocity of a cardboard car propelled by a coding platform.
STEM lessons are having a very real impact on St. Theresa’s community, too. Eighth-grade students are building a food pantry to place in front of the church as a gift to the parish and school.
“Teaching these STEM lessons, I can bring in Church teaching or integrate what they’re doing in other classes,” Rossman said. “Empathy is a big part of our discussions. I’ll ask the students, ‘Can we imagine it? Can we plan it? Who is it going to affect? What impact will it have on the community? Will it make someone’s life better, or cause harm?’ I can pull in those lessons for the students to think about how their efforts are impacting others, how they’re treating everybody with love and respect like Jesus.”
Entering the STEM Pioneers Teacher Corps, Rossman is hoping to expand her horizons on projects that include seeds and plants and is looking forward to elevating STEM education.
“To be able to share STEM education here makes me feel good about the future. The students are getting a hands-on instruction where it’s OK to make mistakes, try again, and do things to make life better for those around them.”
(Photos by Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness.)
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
