2021 is here and MMSA is full of hope as we look to the future. In 2020 we were able to support the work of 2,300 educators across the country, over 2,000 of them from Maine. This is even more educators than in 2019! We were able to do this by revising our professional learning… [Read More]
MMSA Introduces New Internship Program
MMSA has embarked on an exciting new adventure by hosting paid interns to assist with our programmatic work. We have recently brought on three college students who will increase MMSA’s capacity while learning new skills and building their resumes. Joshua Flanagan is working on the WeatherBlur and ACRES projects, collaborating with Digital Media Assistant Sierra… [Read More]
MMSA and ELLMS Collaborative work on Retrospective Program Evaluation
MMSA’s research team has been working with the ELLMS Collaborative members starting back in the Fall of active2020 through Spring 2021 to complete a retrospective evaluation of their Residential Environmental Learning Center (RELC) Programs. ELLMS (Environmental Living and Learning for Maine Students) is a collaboration of Maine-based RELCs (Chewonki, The Ecology School, Schoodic Institute, and… [Read More]
Math Coaching Cohorts at MMSA
Math coaching is an important part of MMSA’s professional learning experiences. Over the course of the year we have worked with several districts, developing a mathematics professional learning plan and working with educators depending on the goals the district and educators have set forth. These are some examples from our STEM Math Education Specialists along… [Read More]
STEMports – “Socially Distanced” Augmented Reality Game Goes Live!
STEMports is entering its third year this October and the team is hard at work developing an augmented reality game app for Maine youth! Wait, what was that—what is STEMports? STEMports is a three-year National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities project that partners with rural communities and schools to develop an innovative STEM learning… [Read More]
Teach ME Outside Launches New Tools and Initiatives to Support Community-Based Environmental Learning
Teach ME Outside is excited to announce the launch of several new initiatives and tools to support schools’ and organizations’ ability to implement community-based environmental learning. A team of 15 in-school and out-of-school educators, administrators, and leaders in environmental learning across Maine began meeting in June to compile a list of high-quality community-based environmental learning… [Read More]
Our Math Consulting Team is Growing!
The MMSA math consulting team supports mathematics educators through project work, consulting, and curriculum development. MMSA strives to identify opportunities to support educators in learning how to integrate mathematical practices into STEM learning, both for in-person and virtual instruction. We work statewide to provide educators and administrators with the support to integrate high quality mathematics… [Read More]
Breaking the Assessment Barrier with ACRES Animation
Over the last year the ACRES (Afterschool Coaching for Reflective Educators in STEM) research team has piloted and deployed an innovative new assessment tool utilizing animation software to mimic an afterschool program. This tool allows participants an opportunity to give feedback about an educator’s use of questioning skills. Built off of the idea of virtual… [Read More]
Place-Based Learning for Elementary Science at Scale
Science class has looked like a lot of different things over the years. We all have memories of dissecting frogs, memorizing the planets, and building volcanoes. Maybe we still cringe at our first attempt at the science fair or, maybe we still have our ribbons displayed. Slowly, we have shifted away from memorizing the steps… [Read More]