During this week’s celebration of National Engineers Week, the Science Museum of Minnesota is celebrating a nine-year partnership with the Cargill Foundation that delivered hands-on engineering education to dozens of elementary schools throughout the Twin Cities metro area, including Hopkins Public Schools. Hopkins was featured in the video celebrating the success of the partnership.
Over the last nine years, Hopkins has integrated Engineering is Elementary (EIE) into the core curriculum. The project served as a catalyst to create strong culture of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) within the school district.
“We seek to decrease the learning gap in STEM education in elementary schools,” said Melissa Leick, vice president of human resources for Cargill Animal Protein and trustee at the Science Museum of Minnesota. “We are so pleased to join forces with the Science Museum to implement a program that is sustainable...by increasing access to STEM education, we’re forging important new pathways and preparing for the future of work.”
To continue the success of the partnership, the Cargill Foundation has made a new five year, $3 million investment in the Science Museum of Minnesota to develop a computational thinking curriculum for Twin Cities schools called InspireCT.
InspireCT will implement district-wide programs to help students develop computational thinking skills like persistence, collaboration, and communication, and it will also build capacity and confidence in educators to incorporate technology into their teaching in new and innovative ways. The goal is to reach every elementary student in partner school districts, while prioritizing effective engagement with students traditionally underrepresented in computing and other STEM careers.