Our Work

MMSA’s work includes a wide range of professional development for both in-school and out-of-school-time educators as well as grant-funded projects.

In addition, MMSA serves as the convening organization for the Maine STEM Collaborative and the fiscal agent for the Maine STEM Council. MMSA provides fiscal and support services for the Council and Collaborative, including extensive administrative support of the biannual Maine STEM Summit. MMSA staff member Dr. Tom Keller is the Council’s Executive Director and MMSA’s Dr. Tom Keller and Dr. Jan Mokros both serve on the Collaborative and have each served a term as Chair. Learn more about these separate organizations at mainestem.org.

MMSA Current Projects

ACRES Participants serve youth in programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, YMCAs, afterschool programs, robotics programs, science olympiad, ...
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Hang out – Make art – Communicate About Important Local IssuesRegister Now AR Girls is an NSF funded research project ...
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The 2019 Census of Community-Based Environmental Learning Summary Report and Case Studies are now available. Click here to read the ...
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We Teach the Creative ProcessDestination Imagination (DI) is a non-profit, cause-driven organization. Its purpose is to ignite the power of ...
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How can we use community-based experiences to empower students in STEM learning? In the Experiential STEM Project students and teachers ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram Bringing together teachers, administrators, business leaders, and researchers to investigate innovative ways to integrate computer ...
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The 75th Maine State Science FairApril 3, 2021Student AwardsGrand AwardsScholarshipsCategory AwardsExperiential AwardsSpecial Awards Grand Awards1st Grand Award –       Linh Nguyen, ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram The Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance is pleased to be teaming up with teachers at ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram Broadening Participation of Rural Young Women in Careers Involving Advanced Mathematics “...I want that to ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram Place-Based Learning for Elementary Science at Scale (PeBLES2) creates experiences that help students understand their ...
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STEM is all around us. It’s in the natural world, the built environment, and the communities where we work, learn, ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram Developing CS Integration Teacher Leaders to bring CS to all Maine elementary students. “Maine has ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram STEMports engages youth and families in missions (ports) to enhance science, technology, engineering, and math ...
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Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Instagram Teach ME Outside is a collaborative project that supports and works in partnership with Maine ...
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Now, more than ever, we need people to be able to think through problems with a rational lens - breaking ...
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MMSA Past Projects

3D-TSE

“More Figuring Out”: 3-D Teaching of Science and Engineering (3D-TSE) Click for Larger Map Some seventy-five percent of Maine school districts have adopted a set of science and engineering standards that are focused on three-dimensional (3-D) teaching and learning that integrates the three dimensions of disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, ...
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Early Mathematical Thinking Enhancement Project (EMTEP)

The Early Mathematical Thinking Enhancement Project (EMTEP), a continuation of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA)'s long-standing Early Mathematical Thinking (EMT) project, created a set of diagnostic assessment tools intended as a formative assessment strategy to uncover students current level of mathematical thinking and guide instruction in grades K-4 ...
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Emergency Response Technology

Emergency Response Technology Natural disasters, especially those involving flooding, are on the rise. Between August and September of 2017, hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria devastated the Houston area, parts of Florida, and several Caribbean islands including the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. They caused both extreme wind and flood ...
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Engineering Ambassadors in Maine

Engineering Ambassadors Engineering Ambassadors pairs local engineers and other STEM professionals with teachers and their students to bring engaging design challenges to middle and secondary classrooms in the greater Portland, Maine area. The program’s main goal is to help students meet and interact with area engineers, hear their stories and recognize ...
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Evaluation of STEMeX with IMLS

STEMex is a highly experimental program that funds scientists and engineers to deliver inquiry-based STEM programs to children aged 6-10 and their families in museums and libraries, using a variety of techniques such as storytelling, personal histories, and analogies. In 2016 the program funded its first four awardees in locations ...
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Exploring Computer Science

In 2018 a supplemental award was made to MMSA to investigate if student learners could communicate computational literacy through video based interviews with local community professionals. Results were mixed. ECS Video Showcase To improve access to computer science instruction by Maine middle and high school students, MMSA developed a proposal ...
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Fewer, Clearer, Deeper: An MSP to Build Coherence

There are two major goals of FCD; first to build a deep understanding of the Common Core Math Standards, the Common Core English Language Arts Standards, and the Framework/Next Generation Science Standards, especially as it relates to practices or capacities; and, second, to build a community of practice among those ...
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Geniverse

Click here to go to project web page Geniverse is a project led by The Concord Consortium that develops free, web-based software for high school biology. It engages students in exploring heredity and genetics by breeding and studying virtual dragons. Interactive models, powered by real genes, enable students to do simulated ...
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Maine Governor’s Academy for STEM Education Leadership

The Governor's Academy experience is designed to prepare STEM teacher leaders to be ambassadors for the mathematics, engineering, and science teaching profession; mentors for the support of new teachers; facilitators of collegial learning; partners and advisers to various district, regional, and statewide initiatives; and contributors to STEM partnerships in Maine ...
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Math & Science Through Engineering (MSTE)

Click here to go to project web page The Math & Science Through Engineering (MSTE) project is a professional development collaboration between MMSA, Maine Maritime Academy, Auburn School Department, Ridge View Community School (Dexter, AOS 94), Lake Region School District (MSAD 61), Mountain Valley & Dirigo Middle Schools (RSU 10), ...
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Powerhouse

PowerHouse, designed by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Seaver Institute, was begun in 2013 with the goal of designing an online learning environment targeting home energy management. MMSA was one of several subcontractors for the project, with the role ...
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Remote Coaching for Afterschool Educators Pilot

The Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance is developing, assessing, and documenting a new model of professional development that targets out-of-school educators who want to embrace STEM education more deeply. MMSA's Dr. Sue Allen directs this project. The pilot program has ended, and the resulting project ACRES (Afterschool Coaching for Rural Educators ...
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Rural Informal STEM Conference 2018

On Sept 13-14 the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance led a conference in Washington DC on the topic of out-of-school STEM learning in rural places. The conference was the first of its kind to bring together about 30 innovators and experts in rural STEM learning that happens outside of school; ...
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STEM Guides: Building Coherent Infrastructure in Rural Communities

The STEM Guides project creates and studies an innovative model of capacity-building for out-of-school STEM learning in rural areas. “STEM Guides” are community members who both cultivate the local landscape of out-of-school STEM and help youth and families navigate it. Small teams of STEM Guides are trained to identify and ...
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