Teach Wonder

We know that powerful things are happening in education and that those powerful things often go unnoticed or are siloed (within a community). We’ve built a space to share those powerful things, where we aren’t constrained by distance and scheduling. We’ll combine our 35 years of K - 12 teaching experience with the unique perspectives of our guests to connect you to relevant ideas and experiences. Listen in to motivate your practice, challenge your current pedagogy, and expand your horizons with stories from educators near and far.

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Teach Wonder

Lessons from Summer

September 30, 2023 • The Center for Excellence in STEM Education • Season 4 • Episode 1

Julie and Ashley are back for another season of Teach Wonder. Listen as we talk about what teaching lessons we've learned this summer and some fun takes on our adventures in reading.

Links:
Unearthing Joy
The Wager
Ascendant

Intro Music:
David Biedenbender

Other Music:
Pixabay

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Facebook: cmich_cese

Julie Cunningham: 0:00

But I found myself having to sort of re explain even to people who are familiar with us right so or, and or to see our center through different eyes.

Ashley O'Neil: 0:12

Okay, now we're recording so welcome to wander wonder wonder podcast hosted by

Unknown: 0:28

Ashley O'Neill and Julie Cunningham.

Ashley O'Neil: 0:46

Welcome back, it's the launch of our fall semester, and we are back in your ears for another season of Teach Wonder. If you haven't checked out our episodes before, you can find a quick episode guide in the show notes. We broken down our episodes into a handy guide that points you toward the ones that might be the most interesting to you. To launch another season of episodes and interviews Julie and I sat down to do a bit of a reintroduction and ask each other some of the questions that we often ask our guests because despite working in the same center, Julie and I spent a lot of time focusing on different projects this summer. So this was a pretty in real time catch up for the two of us after a flurry of summer activities. In a twist. In this episode, you'll hear us reflecting on what we've learned as teachers this summer, and from WHO and more about the projects and activities that will keep us busy this fall. As to true bibliophiles, we decided to close out our episode with a discussion and what we've been reading, both for work and for fun. I still am in a small state of shock. Having learned Julie's latest book pic, I just didn't see it coming. But before we share it interview, I realized that some of our talk falls into comfort speak, meaning that if you're new to our podcast or us we didn't always give the best context. So here's a quick introduction or reintroduction. The Center for Excellence in STEM education was formed about 12 years ago. It sits inside the College of Education and Human Services at Central Michigan University. Our focus is creating meaningful STEM programs for middle school students. We define middle school as fourth through ninth grade and their teachers. So much of our focus in programming has these grades in mind. But as our broader goal is to provide quality STEM education, you'll find us branching into a broader grade band as specific projects or grants or partners come our way. We have four staff members Julie, Amanda, Kim, and myself. We each have our own programs and groups that we focus on. But as a small staff, there are a lot of crossover between our responsibilities. We often think of our job in terms of audiences. So we work with K 12 students, undergrads here at CMU who are studying to be teachers, families in our community, and educators. Most of our visible work is running programs and partnerships with these audiences, field trips and teacher PD after school events, summer camps and a scholar program to support pre service teachers are among the few. When I say we all do a bit of everything. I mean, in the summer I spent a week running a camp for middle and high school students. I led a family event on campus brand, our Chief Science Officer LTI and was in both Detroit and on Beaver Island for teacher professional developments that are happening through our center. Julie, in the meantime, helped manage summer camps worked on an NSF grant oversaw new projects for the Fall led a family event and coordinated a teacher PD here on campus, among other things. So here's our conversation or reflection on the summer, and some hopes for the future. Okay, I go ahead.

Julie Cunningham: 3:51

Okay. So, I am Julie Cunningham, and I'm the director of the Center for Excellence in STEM education. And we're looking forward to reconnecting with you on the podcast today.

Ashley O'Neil: 4:02

Fantastic. And since we've been gone for a little while, we thought we'd start this episode a bit differently, or the season a bit differently, in filling you in on what we've been doing a bit of a brief introduction to our center, if you're new to the things that we do, and then also some information about the ways that Julie and I have been learning and we'll be learning this year. So Julie, with that in mind, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. And then you can ask me some questions back. But the first question I want to know is what themes keep coming up for you in your projects right now?

Julie Cunningham: 4:34

Sure. I think the number one theme that keeps coming up and my projects and when I'm thinking about projects and thinking about things that are starting this fall or running through the academic school year, and I do have a it is a pretty varied the projects themselves are pretty varied nonetheless that I think some themes that keep coming up are building relationships, either among participants in the program or from participant like from the person putting the program on to the participants in the program. So either among like a cohort that already exists, or new relationships in terms of the participants and the sort of instructor or the person who's in the position to be offering the program. And I think that building relationships to me means like making ongoing connections and helping people see themselves in STEM education. Yeah, what about you what themes come are coming up in your projects right now? Well, I

Ashley O'Neil: 5:50

feel a little bit contrived in saying this, because we did a lot of PDs that were based on student student choice in place. But those are the things I feel like they're coming up to me often. I'm not sure if it's because we're having lots of conversations with teachers following up on them, and how things are looking in their classroom, or if it's because I'm being really considerate of what we're developing with student programming here. But I think for me, that I've always thought about the physical environment, and how that as a teacher really matters. And I like seeing that in action. And watching teachers this summer and students this summer, let's just say we were outside. And you can't control a lot of things that happen outside. But you also can't control what the students take in, right, like, what catches their attention, what sound that they're listening to what they're paying attention to first. And I know that that can feel really overwhelming, but I watched teachers spin that into a wonderful opportunity and a gift for that their students this summer. So as we're thinking about student programming this fall, we're kind of reorganizing some of our internal spaces. And it made me think a lot about how we can keep student autonomy and student agency at the front with our physical space. And the headspace that can make work, for example, like when they walk into a place, what about the configuration, or the placement of materials, or what the sight lines are, give them ownership over this space, so that a teacher or an adult doesn't have to lead them and guide them through where everything is, what the section is for what they can use, what they can't use, what the purpose of this is, what about the space can work for them, so that they can retain their autonomy.

Julie Cunningham: 7:21

You've always been especially thoughtful when it comes to that I think back to when we were doing when we first started doing family events. And we sort of had this we we started them very differently than what they became in terms of who was going to be the instructor at the event. And so I appreciate when you think out loud when it comes to your, your space considerations?

Ashley O'Neil: 7:45

Well, we'll see because we have students coming in to test this space, this next month, next Monday, it's very soon. So by the time you've listened to this will have experienced them in this new environment for the first time. And I'm sure that we'll have some adjustments that will make based on how they actually interact. But I'm pretty excited. So you also spent a fair bit of time working with teachers and faculty this summer, what stuck with you.

Julie Cunningham: 8:08

So I think a couple things stuck with me. One, it didn't seem to matter who the audience was, we had people who were very willing to take their own personal time and work at being a better educator, a better teacher, no matter where they were, they were in that process. They I think we just we just had some great groups who came and just worked hard right and asked really important questions. And I'm thinking that the way that we offered PD this summer, at least one of our PD offerings this summer was a little different in that it was once a month over three months. And so right people really came back often three times and worked hard those three times and invested in themselves invested in their students invested in their colleagues. And that was true whether I worked with teachers or with faculty as teacher educators. So I think that's pretty exciting. That's always really invigorating for me, right? Because we can get bogged down in the everyday work, but when we see others come in and get excited about it, I think like that is uplifting so I'm that's one thing that stuck with me from the summer and then I think going back to this connections, it doesn't seem to matter which group I'm working with. I think people are looking for that they're looking for ways to stay connected to be connected, to stay connected, whether I was gonna say whether it's formal or informal, but I feel like it often. Often the ask is is more informal. Right and just time to be collegial and time to be thinking about things that are going on in education and having those conversations with one another. So those are the things that kind of stuck out to me from the summer.

Ashley O'Neil: 10:13

So when you said that people are looking for connection, I agree. And I think that there can be this really interesting energy that happens when you're connecting with people that are not in your physical building. And those Kleagle connections are really important, right? The fact that you know, they know your students, they know your administration, you share a school district or a grade band that is really important. What I've noticed about the workshops that you're talking about, is that these outside connections with other teachers, it removes a little bit of that. So we're not stuck talking about the broken copier machine, or stuck talking about the day to day set stuff we can really get into and start talking about why it is we became teachers and the things that we really value. And I've been blown away by how thoughtful and caring the teachers have been with each other as they've had conversations about what it means to build respectful relationships or build small groups or use universal design in the classroom. I think it's been really cool. Honestly, my memory is far more sensorial, I think because when I was thinking about what sticking with me, I was super lucky. And I got to spend a lot of time out of our MakerSpace. Several of our PDS happened on location, and one of the locations was Beaver Island. And we did this macro invertebrate activity, which if you've ever done a macro invertebrate activity, the prep is pretty tremendous. You have to get the bins and the waiters and the nets and the night before one of the facilitators had to drive like an hour to go check out the stuff we were going to go do and see that the creeks were low, so we had to revamp, so there was just a lot of back end logistic II stuff. And I think when I was going into it, I was hung up on that a little bit. This is a pretty intense experiment experience from a prep standpoint, and I was in that brain. And I was all caught up in that stuff. And it was like getting down to the creek. Once I climbed down there. I had this moment where I looked around, and there were like 20 teachers, and three faculty members from CMU, and they were all jumping over logs looking for frogs, and their noses were inches from the water looking at little mayfly nymphs. And they were getting out tools and testing things and calling each other over to come in and see what they'd found. And there was all of this doozy, asthma and excitement. And in one hand, we're modeling an activity that they could do with their students. But on the other hand, we have these adult learners who completely lost themselves in their own curiosity, and their own excitement. And from a teacher standpoint, I want to remember how they felt. And that really cool learning that happened, there was a lot of work on our end, like I said, and the cleanup was tremendous and required help from lots of people. But seeing those teachers in that moment, having what felt like a core memory educational experience, experience is something that I want to remember that enthusiasm that will help sustain us when we're prepping for activities. I feel like work because sometimes that really good stuff is is a lot of work.

Julie Cunningham: 12:57

Yeah, I hope. I hope in some instances, well, we're able to give students those opportunities this year, right, in addition to the adult learners this summer, so that's exciting.

Ashley O'Neil: 13:09

So you mentioned a little bit some of your summer work, what opportunities are you involved in this semester?

Julie Cunningham: 13:15

Right, so Well, we have an ongoing grant, National Science Foundation grant, we're working with faculty as a community of practice and I am really excited about that particular community. We're pretty small community eight people but also really, I think a community with shared decision making and just some really really thoughtful people working together so that is ongoing mostly people will be doing their own work in their classrooms in their courses. However, we will get an opportunity to hear updates from one another as the semester progresses. So that's pretty exciting in part because an NSF sometimes takes a bit to get accepted right so this has been a couple of years in progress before we were able to start the work so I am excited about that we are involved in another we be in the center are involved in another grant with a Great Lakes Bay region which will help get girls in the region involved in STEM and specifically engineering and computer science and so I I always get excited anytime that we can help students who maybe don't see themselves as a see themselves in stem right for whatever reason are see themselves may be involved in engineering or computer science but might otherwise be interested if they don't, that's an opportunity. I like that right. I like to see people who don't always have the same opportunities as others to have to have a chance to experience those things. So that grant should be pretty exciting and Um, there's a great group of people in the region working on that grant. So those are, we started new, you know, we started a new grade band bass field trips at the center. So I'm excited to see, every time we pilot something, it's fun to see how that might work, right. And it's sort of taking all hands on deck and some expansion of spaces and maybe a little bit of risk in that sense on our part in terms of, you know, making it work so that others can see maybe that we're making it work. But also just, you know, I think it's exciting. It's exciting to try something new and something that we've talked about previously, but now is coming to fruition. So those are, those are three things, three really different programs that I think give us give us some really interesting work for this fall. How about you? What are you excited or interested or looking forward to for opportunities this fall?

Ashley O'Neil: 16:00

I so some of the things that we're working on this fall, I have follow up to a lot of our teacher PDS. And so for our PBL stem Institute from Belle Isle, there's a year long fellowship that teachers can opt into. So we'll meet monthly virtually, and then I like try to get into their classrooms and see what they're doing and help them in their physical spaces. So I'm looking forward to talking to all of those teachers, again, our first meeting is in October, don't ask me what day but it is coming up soon. And I'm pretty excited about that. Our chief science officer program has grown as well. So we have these middle schoolers and high schoolers from five, hopefully, six schools, we're onboarding a sixth sixth right now. And this is the third year of that program. And I'm really starting to see some of these students blossom and take a lot of ownership and the things that are happening, we're developing a Leadership Council, where some of the students will make more decisions for the group as a whole, and kind of start running some of the things that have traditionally been run by the adults in our group. So I'm excited to see where that goes, we have this new field trip band that we're kind of opening and piloting, I think that by next Monday, so by the time you'll hear this, it will have already happened. And one of the things I'm nervous, I'm nervous, because we haven't had this age band in here in a while. And we're doing something for three hours. And we're seeing these students repeatedly over the course of the year. So that model is different from some of our one off in formal education field trips in the past. And it's a cool opportunity, because we get to do some of the things that we can put into practice some of the things we talk about teachers in a new way. And being able to work with students and students to sustain projects with them for longer periods of time, having these repeat contact points with them, we're going to be able to build relationships rather than like a one off field trip. But also our staff is small enough that oftentimes our model is one of us running in a direction with a project and someone else running in a different different direction with the project, we kind of high fived each other on the way out the door. And this has three staff members in the same ish place at the same time, all teaching. And I think that is a really cool opportunity for all of us to reflect together. And how this is going. We can do some of the collaborative processes that we're always encouraging our teachers to do when it comes to talking with each other and being reflective. And so that has me, I'm pretty excited. Those are my top things, getting to see my CSOs getting into some classrooms. And then this third kind of new program piece that we're working together with other staff,

Julie Cunningham: 18:20

those are three really interesting pieces. I think that's part of what keeps our jobs. Right, fun and exciting. Like that's a no no day really no two days really looks the same day in and day out. And also, like you said earlier, sort of the prep work that we put in, right, because we have a small staff we're all have to prep. When it comes to fruition. It's fun, fun to see happen. Yeah,

Ashley O'Neil: 18:47

it's talking to Amanda the other day about how it's like you put this file back in your brain that says okay, and today I'm working with adult learners, and then you put that back away, and you pull out another box and another file and says, All right, it's five year olds today. And then you put that back away and you coach shift a little and it's exciting, but it keeps us on our toes for sure. So we talked a little bit about the center. What do you wish people know? Because I know we have people who are listening who are involved with us and know us pretty intimately. They've done programs with us on repeat, but then we have folks who maybe have only worked with us on the student end or maybe have only worked with us online or done our virtual stuff. So I'm just wondering, what would you like people to know about our center?

Julie Cunningham: 19:28

And I think and part of this comes out of I'm actually sitting on a steering committee also for our college which is really neither here nor there as far as this podcast is concerned. But I found myself having to sort of re explain even to people who are familiar with us, right so or, and or to see our center through different eyes as they read my report for our steering committee. So some of it I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, I guess that is, you know, cool that we do That or and yeah, I guess maybe we could do a better job of telling our story when it comes to this piece. So part of my lens is, is that are today because I had that meeting yesterday. But anyway, um, one thing I think is that most of our programs are, I think pretty reasonably priced either free or very close to free so that, although coming to campus maybe doesn't always feel accessible to everyone that in terms of travel, especially if you might be in a rather rural area, or potentially a little bit farther away from CMU, when you're listening to this, I think the registration fees are both for our summer camps and our academic year programming, either free or reasonably priced, or we're able to provide some sort of a scholarship. So I think that's one thing that people need to know that we hope that things are accessible to others, and that we are interested if they are not, we are interested in making them accessible. And when I say that, I think beyond just the prices, I hope that people who have worked with us before recognize that we're happy to dig deeper or to look at things differently with them, right. So although you may have come for an introductory field trip for your students, we are happy to do a follow up field trip or we are happy to look at something in a little bit more depth there, we are happy to focus on one piece of the design thinking principle. So I don't want people to think that there is only one way to access us. And then they're done. And they can't come back with their students or it wouldn't be advantageous for their students to come back. So I think just this idea that we hope to have relationships with people that are ongoing, and we are interested in invested in making sure those relationships are productive for others. And I think the third thing that comes to my mind is just this idea that we really are trying to stay connected with folks in in some rather unique ways. And I'm thinking of this podcast for one, right, so you can listen to this wherever you are when you listen to your podcast, but also the book club that meets virtually right. So a group of educators who are reading the book that that you choose, and getting online to discuss that book, and really how that discussion is led by the people who are part of the book club, right? This idea that we're going to try the Slack channel, to look at some back and forth conversations with educators. But even just the I mean, we as a center invest pretty heavily in sharing information on social media and making sure our website is updated. So just thinking about the ways in which I mean, we do have a YouTube channel that's got, you know, plenty of activities on it. So I mean, just the just the number of ways in which we, I think try to be available, and try to be thoughtful about our availability.

Ashley O'Neil: 23:24

Yes, I agree with all the things you're saying. And I think another thing that comes to mind, because I often explained my job to family and friends and people who are even less, maybe even not even in the field of education. And so a lot of times I find myself explaining stem, and I hear them go Oh, yes, those four things, and it doesn't go much further. And so I think one of the things I've learned in conversations with people about our center is that there's likely something here for you. Even if you don't identify with what your notion of STEM is. A lot of people think that science technology and engineering and math, there's like this competitive edge to it, that there's this really analytical edge, you know, where we're spending our days over here with Bunsen burners and coding programs, and robotics, and all of those things are true, yes, all of those things are in our space, and they happen. So you will see some things that feel very traditionally stem, and I've got my fingers, quote, unquote. But you'll also see us talking about place based learning because we know the power of place and helping students connect with STEM careers and STEM opportunities. We know that students learn STEM subjects best when it's not a teacher up in the front lecturing with a PowerPoint, but that they have these hands on opportunities, and it's student led inquiry. So we talk a lot about the pedagogy and the structures and the styles that helped facilitate this quality learning. And we know that there are the skills that go into being collaborative thinker, a collaborative worker and the learner and to do a science experiment or to do an engineering activity. It requires a lot of innovative thinking and being open minded and being flexible and failing repeatedly. And all of those things are learning processes for students and require a lot of comfort and safety and a place where they can do do those things and fail safely. So we spend a lot of time on those things as well. And none of those things directly say stem, right, but they go into our center. And so I think one of the things I like to share with teachers and families and students is, if you see us making bread, it stem and I can tell you why. Or if you see us doing role playing games, or that stem, and I can tell you why. Or if you see us out into Creek, that stem and let me tell you why. So I always like to talk about and broadcast and advertise what STEM means to us. Because as a STEM Center, I think a lot of people, and a lot of the work that we do is traditional, but then there's a lot of people that will go and say how does that fit in? And I like to explain exactly how.

Julie Cunningham: 25:43

Yeah, that's a good point. gets back to that example, early on that where we would talk about what happens between those letters right in that acronym of Stamets the seasoning and the meal or the what goes on in between those four letters, the science, technology, engineering and math. Yeah, that's a really good point. That is something that people who are on the steering committee with me noticed, they said they were surprised at how broad our involvement is, like everything from Esports to learning through play, right, like, and you're right, we can tell you why those are STEM topics. So yeah, that's good point.

Ashley O'Neil: 26:26

Okay, so this leads me into a question that maybe weren't related professionally, but it could also be flipped into anything, because we contain multitudes, right? You're a full person, I'm a full person. And so I'm curious about what you're reading. And you could share with us something that you've been reading or will be reading professionally. But I also know that we're both pretty voracious readers in our personal lives. So whatever you'd like to share, I would like to know what it is you're reading.

Julie Cunningham: 26:50

Well, I'm actually I'm glad you asked me this, because I almost never read nonfiction. I almost I hate to admit it. But I read mostly fiction. And I read mostly like, as my way of, you know, like, escape. So I happened to be reading the wager a tale of shipwreck mutiny and murder, and it is nonfiction. And it is so outside what I would normally choose to read. But it's, it's been really good. So anyway, that's currently what I'm reading. I'm actually almost done with it. And I'm really enjoying that. And then I will read our book club book, this fall for the for your book club. And then remind me, all I can see is it's a yellow cover, and it has joy in the title. But I

Ashley O'Neil: 27:39

enjoy that because all I could see was the picture of the cover.

Julie Cunningham: 27:44

Yeah, and I had it actually home with me, and I just, I don't have in front of me right now. So anyway, another thing, Joy is another book that I'll read with a couple of faculty members as as kind of a mini book club. So that's, that's what I have going on right now.

Ashley O'Neil: 28:00

Nonfiction mutiny. That's a new one for me. I'm so glad I was muted, because I laugh so hard that you wouldn't have been able to hear you

Julie Cunningham: 28:09

know, it's totally not myself, I was so good.

Ashley O'Neil: 28:13

So fantastic. So I read a lot of nonfiction workbooks this summer trying to find the right book for a book club. And I read unearthing joy. And I read smarter together, which is the collaboration and equity in the elementary classroom, which while not our book club book is the book that I wanted it to be our book club book, because it is, but it was just a little too focused on elementary and math, but it is so good. So I highly recommend that to anybody who's listening, we'll make sure that we link books that we recommend in the show notes in case one of those books stands out to you. But then currently, personally, I just finished even demon Copperhead, which is the Barbara Kingsolver book. And I do recommend that book to educators actually. Because it is such great insight into the perspective of a kid, and all the things that he has going on growing up. It's not a book for teachers, it's totally fiction. It's in the style of David Copperfield, if you're familiar with that book. So that's really interesting, but it is so good. And if you have students or care about students or care about children, and you want to understand like, why a school not a priority for you right now, why do you not really seem to be connected to the education that you have and taking it seriously, or we have this disconnect between us, I really recommend this book. And then I'm currently like, deep in the dragon fantasy world. And I'm reading Ascendance, which is a young adult book, and I understand that, but there is something about fall and fantasy that just works for me. So I feel like I read seasonally. And so my September book lineup is full of like these cozy fantasy magical stories, because I think it's my version of escapism, so you can board the ship and be on the shipwreck, and I will be with the dragon writers. Thank you for your time today. We'll be in your ears pretty regularly this semester. We'll try Keep our every other every two weeks schedule and we've got some really cool interviews lined up. I am looking forward to talking to these people and we're looking forward to meeting with that couple in the next few weeks and we'll share interviews with you after that.