STEMx National Network Launched at U.S. News STEM Solutions Event
From Elizabeth Murray
 What does quality STEM teaching and learning look like? Where can teachers find resources or great examples of classroom practice? How can families or communities help raise student achievement in science?
Battelle Memorial Institute and 13 state STEM education networks officially launched STEMx on June 27th at  the U.S. News STEM Solutions Summit in Dallas, Texas. STEMx is a multi-state initiative connecting statenetworks and partners to accelerate the growth of policies, practices, and partnerships that are needed to expand the number of STEM teachers, increase student achievement in STEM education, and grow tomorrow’s innovators.
STEMx aims to connect states and their stakeholders from across K-12 and higher education, business, government, philanthropy, and the community to impact STEM education and workforce development. The network’s core work of “education, engagement, and exchange” will be propelled by an accessible technology platform enabling states to share, analyze, and disseminate quality STEM education ideas, tools, and practices.
Members of the STEMx network include Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington state.
To date the Network has collected over 150 tools. These tools generally fall into one of the following clusters:
- STEM teaching and learning
- Evaluation and assessment
- Policy
- Community engagement
- Network development
Network partners have begun the process of evaluating and assessing the collected tools – four have so far earned the STEMx endorsement seal. Endorsement indicates that a tool is valuable for use by network states and others to advance their work, with applicability outside a single state, community or school context. It does not indicate that all STEMx network participants are using or have adopted the tool.
Visit the member state’s sites to view tools endorsed by STEMx:
- STEM Immersion Matrix – Arizona STEM Network
AZ STEM worked with local partners to develop a tool for schools and districts to assess their capacity for integrating STEM project-based learning into their learning environments at various levels of immersion.
- DIY STEM Community Guide – NC STEM
This tool is a guide for conducting a community visioning process and mobilizing multi-sector partners around a mutually agreed upon STEM agenda.
- Community Profiles – Washington STEM
Washington STEM profiled three communities: Dayton (OH), Kinston (NC) and Long Island (NY). These profiles feature not just what the communities have or are doing to support STEM learning, but also their ties to state level networks and policy and to regional and state economic development.
- STEM Quality Framework & Rubric
Designed to provide a framework for judging the quality of project-based multidisciplinary STEM lessons and programs either as they are created or chosen from available resources.
Follow STEMx on Twitter at: @STEMx
Elizabeth Murray is Project Manager of MIT BLOSSOMS and Assistant director of MIT LINC.
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