{"id":79634,"date":"2019-12-17T08:59:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T13:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=79634"},"modified":"2020-02-20T09:06:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:06:20","slug":"stem-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/17\/stem-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"STEM celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Betsy Crites, education lecturer and STEM coordinator at the Lake Campus, helps future teachers apply their learning through community outreach. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Inspired by her kindergarten teacher, a young girl named Betsy would go home and play teacher for hours. Those early experiences instilled in her a love of education, and she knew she wanted to be a teacher one day.<\/p>\n

That dream came true and today, Betsy Crites is an education lecturer at the Wright State University\u2013Lake Campus<\/a>, inspiring the next generation of elementary school teachers.<\/p>\n

Crites, who is also the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) coordinator at Lake Campus, received a Students First Fund<\/a> grant from the Wright State University Foundation for a project that teaches education students how to use children\u2019s books to inspire STEM learning.<\/p>\n

In September, all junior and senior elementary education students attended a \u201ctrain the trainer\u201d program on how to use the \u201cPicture-Perfect STEM\u201d book series, along with fiction and nonfiction picture books, in their future classrooms. The students then presented the techniques at the countywide in-service training held in October for Mercer County teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year\u2019s senior class will now train the incoming junior class, making this sustainable for many years to come,\u201d said Crites.<\/p>\n

Launched in January 2019, the Students First Fund was created by the Wright State Foundation to proactively seek and fund innovative ideas that enhance the Wright State student experience. Crites received one of the 13 grants for projects that also must be self-sustaining within two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducational outreach is at the heart of the Lake Campus,\u201d said Crites. \u201cA lot of learning takes place outside the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lake Campus elementary education students create fun activities that teach children about STEM.<\/p><\/div>\n

Experiential learning is an important element in Crites\u2019 teaching style. For example, Crites coordinates the wildly popular STEM Camp at Lake Campus each June. Children entering grades K\u20133 learn about science through fun hands-on sessions on topics such as dinosaur detectives, oceans, designing go-karts and building towers, mazes and boats. Education majors get the opportunity to develop activities and work with the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have already secured funding for STEM Camp next summer,\u201d she said. \u201cThis year we met capacity in about six hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education students also volunteered at the summer reading program at the Marion branch of the Mercer County District Library in Chickasaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese types of activities give our Lake Campus student practice in working with students of different abilities and interacting with parents \u2014 skills they will need in the workplace,\u201d she said. \u201cNinety percent of last year\u2019s graduates have been hired in full-time teaching positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus and the surrounding region hold a special place in Crites\u2019 heart. She graduated from Coldwater High School, began her college career at Lake Campus and obtained her bachelor\u2019s degree in education<\/a> from Wright State in 1995. So it\u2019s no wonder she wants to give back to her local community.<\/p>\n

She started teaching in Celina City Schools before working at Wright State as an adjunct instructor teaching future teachers. In 2011, she was hired by Wright State as a full-time instructor of education, but she also worked occasionally for Celina City Schools as a technology coach.<\/p>\n

Community outreach and partnerships are demonstrated in numerous other ways. In October, the education department worked with second grade teachers at Celina City Schools on the Lego League Jr. expo held at Lake Campus.<\/p>\n

In November, the department hosted STEM Days for St. Marys and Parkway Schools second graders. This gave elementary education majors the opportunity to develop curriculum and collaborate in planning STEM activities for the children. The program also helps promote STEM equity in lower-income communities.<\/p>\n

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Junior and senior elementary education students at the Lake Campus learned how to use children\u2019s books to inspire STEM learning.<\/p><\/div>\n

Crites, along with several of her students, also visited the Tri Star Early Childhood classroom to promote the education program at Lake Campus. In addition, she and two adjunct instructors are partnering with the Arts Place in St. Marys for a Literature Festival in April. Education students will present reading strategies for parents, and the Arts Place will bring in several local authors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betsy Crites, education lecturer and STEM coordinator at the Lake Campus, helps future teachers apply their learning through community outreach. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":79642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2104,2023,4300,2040,744,725,731,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-teacher-education","category-faculty","category-faculty-profile","category-giving","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-lake-campus","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79674,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79634\/revisions\/79674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}