Learning Resources (x)

A. Pre-K – 12 Schools

We provide free access to the talkSTEM Learning Suite, including our commercial-free YouTube channel to all schools everywhere because we are committed to supporting teachers and administrators interested in providing expanded opportunities for all preK-12 students to grow their STEM identities and to connect their everyday environments and activities to their growing understandings about the nature of STEM. We also provide strong role models and perspectives to students through short video blogs by people who work in varied STEM-integrated careers. People, places, and everyday activities such as sports, art, and play are all highlighted as STEM-rich. By sharing our videos and interactive resources freely with all schools, we hope they will use them in their work with students.

We also invite all students and teachers to join our community and submit their own STEM narratives and perspectives using photographs and videos they make following our guidelines and methods described in our Create Your Own walkSTEM® program where they can view their spaces and everyday activities through the lens of STEM. Place-based learning together with an ecosystems approach to learning have been recently earmarked by the Federal government as key strategies in successful approaches to STEM education. At talkSTEM, we have been focused on these approaches since we were founded.

Some examples of schools that have shared their work and published on our platform include:

• Greenhill School
• Hockaday School
• Mount Auburn STEAM Academy, Dallas ISD
• Solar Preparatory School for Girls, Dallas ISD
• White Rock Montessori

Some of our Professional Development experiences for teachers in math, science, STEM and STEAM for K-12 educators and for informal educators have included:

• Annual Conference for the National Coalition of Girls Schools, Summer, 2019 (Los Angeles, CA) – Workshop on innovative approaches for ALL girls to see themselves as STEAM practitioners
• Workshops for Dallas ISD teachers on Virtual Field Trips at the Annual Conferences for the Science Teachers of Texas (2017, 2019)
• Region 10 Education Service Center for Texas. Workshop: Learning on Location (2018, 2019)
• Teach for America (Dallas Cohort) workshops (2017)
• Southern Methodist University (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Guest speaker at Teacher Education classes in Simmons School of Education and Human Development and at Annual Conference organized by Research in Math Education.
• Presentation at Catedra Fulbright Regiones to teachers and teacher educators (2019)
• Keynote Speaker at Annual Conference at East China Normal University, Shanghai (2020)
• Webinars for teachers on talkSTEM platform
• Webinars for teachers on Nepris platform

We provide teachers with virtual math, science, STEM-, and STEAM-integrated field trips through our video playlists on the talkSTEM YouTube channel. We also provide guidance for after school clubs and projects. You can view our Educator Resources and our Done For You Teacher Bundles. You can also view talkSTEM books for pre-K-12 teachers.

B. Parents & Families

Parents are every child’s most important educators and families are critically important learning environments. This is why we invite parents to use our learning suite materials, to join our community, and to subscribe to the talkSTEM YouTube channel. By ensuring that all girls and boys see themselves as members of the talkSTEM learning community, parents can ensure that their children are aware of their STEM mindsets and their STEM journeys through everyday experiences. By explicitly naming their activities and environments as having connections to science, technology, engineering, and math, children develop their STEM identities. This gift puts children in the best possible position to be included in STEM learning opportunities in schools and other settings. talkSTEM blog posts, the talkSTEM Learning Suite of tools and resources, our videos, family walking tours, live events including our annual Pi Day Math Festival, and webinars we provide on our platform as well as on partner platforms are all designed to help parents nurture their children’s interest in math and science with the goal of self-identification as a STEM person who engages in relevant and enjoyable STEM activities in everyday life

C. Colleges and Universities

We partner with colleges in a few different ways. We share our Create Your Own walkSTEM® frameworks with interested professors and student groups who then create walkSTEM® videos that allow K-12 students who visit their campus for field trips and summer programs to enjoy a tour of the campus through the lens of math, science, and /or STEM. Read Teaching Computational Thinking in School article by a computer science professor at University of Texas at Dallas, one of our partners. We know that college and university campuses are rich with exciting opportunities for students at neighboring schools and are open to partnering in all ways with interested groups on campuses to reach as many young people as possible.

Other partnerships include Southern Methodist University, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Dallas County Community College District. We partner with teacher education programs, interested professors, offices of community outreach, College Access departments, campus summer programs, student groups such as Society of Women Engineers, and more.

View the walkSTEM® tours at SMU and at UT Southwestern Medical Center campus.

D. Out-of-School Education Programs

We partner with after school groups ranging from Girl Scouts, Imagine Science (a partnership between Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, YMCA, and Girls Inc), Girls Inc, Dallas ISD After school programming, Big Thought, Chick Tech a national organization servings tens of thousands of girls and women every year), and more. We know how important out of school time is to children’s learning and development and are enthusiastic about collaborating in this area.

View our walkSTEM® tour at Girl Scouts of NE Texas Camp Whispering Cedars and view the amazing student productions of their walkSTEM® tours at Mount Auburn STEAM Academy, at Solar Preparatory School for Girls, and at Girls Inc .

E. Corporations

We partner with corporations in a variety of ways. One example includes our partnership with Capital One’s Social Innovation group to create a walkSTEM@Capital One app designed for their regional headquarters in Plano, TX that includes augmented reality software in order to engage students visiting this campus in fascinating ways. Their volunteers use this walkSTEM® experience while leading elementary, middle, and high school students on tours of their campus. We also partnered with Capital One on Full STEAM Ahead, a special event focusing on girls education in STEAM in 2019.

We have also partnered with Fluor, Texas Instruments, and Comerica who have generously supported our programming for underrepresented students in STEM and for girls.

We are open to discussing new and exciting projects with all interested corporations and businesses who want to collaborate in order to make an impact on STEM education for all.

F. Cities

We have partnered with the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs to create our videos and interactive worksheets in downtown Dallas.

View our walkSTEM® tours of the Dallas Arts District, Dallas City Hall Plaza, West End Historic District, Dallas Public Library, Red Bird Mall, Starbucks Community Cafe in Southern Dallas, Love Field Airport, and Ronald Kirk Bridge.

We believe that small, mid-sized, and large cities have a tremendous opportunity to showcase learning opportunities for students, educators, and families by creating walkSTEM® stops and signage at public monuments, parks, and well-known buildings. Why not consider some STEM questions as you walk by a park, a museum, a public artwork, or any city site? Perhaps children can even play some high-tech STEM-integrated scavenger games! These are all fun ideas we have worked with and we would love to partner with other cities to help design educational games and opportunities for all.

G. Museums and Zoos

We partner with museums, zoos, and a wide range of other cultural organizations to create customized experiences. Examples include:

• Dallas Museum of Art – walkSTEM® experience for “Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art” exhibition, in partnership with museum’s Education department, 2018-2019; Museum Docent Training, 2017
• Trinity River Audubon Center – walkSTEM® tour design
• Dallas Arboretum – walkSTEM® tour design consulting
• AT&T Performing Arts Center – Student and teacher interactive activity guides to supplement science performance by Dr. Kaboom (2018)
• Dallas Zoo – walkSTEM® tour of selected animal habitats; student and teacher interactive activity guides
• Frontiers of Flight Museum – Virtual walkSTEM® tour and student activity guides for field trips