Institute for School Partnership

Deb Holmes has led STEMpact’s STEM Teacher Quality program since its inception, encouraging over 1,070 local educators to see STEM in a whole new light.

Jacky Bransome is neither a scientist nor a teacher. But she happens to know that fireflies aren’t the best way to explain chemiluminescence to students living in her part of the world. Turns out that fireflies aren’t a thing in Gillingham, UK. It’s one of many fun facts she’s picked up over the years through […]

Lauren Ashman, program manager and instructional specialist for the mySci Program at The Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis (ISP),  has been recognized with the Emerging Leader Award. The Emerging Leader Award recognizes a Washington University employee who positively influences and leads others at the university, in their community and in […]

Photo: Dasia Franczyk, a first and second grade looping teacher at MRH Early Childhood Center, was among 21 area educators presenting STEM DI work at ISP’s Improvement Showcase held May 18, 2023 at Washington University in St. Louis. Creating environments that invite all students to engage confidently with ambitious mathematical learning is an aim best […]

Using Our Resources Wisely, a fifth grade science unit developed by the Institute for School Partnership’s (ISP)  mySci program has been awarded the NGSS Design Badge. The Badge is awarded to top-rated science units designed for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Since 2017, only four other units, including mySci’s From Sun to Food, have […]

“This is going to be fun!” When fifth graders walk into a classroom set up for the next science lesson with that level of enthusiasm, something very right is happening, and it’s not magic.  Their teacher, Sarah Carter, knows engaging science learning – the messy kind, with hands-on lessons and authentic, sometimes unpredictable inquiry that […]

Photo: Co-authors Briana Trager, a former STEM coordinator from the Mehlville School District (left) and ISP Associate Director Rachel Ruggirello An ISP-led collaboration with three St. Louis area school districts aimed at improving math outcomes for all students is featured in Success Stories from Catalyzing Change, a new book published by the National Council of […]

Brittany Stephens was on the lookout for an old-fashioned rotary phone over the summer.  No stranger to kindergarteners or the classroom, Stephens is confident that having the clunky relic on hand will help kindergarten students in her classroom grasp the concepts of then and now.  “Being encouraged to think creatively and find the tools I […]

In a new policy piece, biology faculty advocate for new classroom approaches to fix the national exodus of students from STEM fields. All across the United States, half of the college students who plan to major in STEM switch fields. And Black and Latinx students leave STEM at a higher rate than their white peers. […]

Science teacher Jaime Schneider has earned a reputation for herself. Students come to her class expecting something phenomenal, and she’s happy to deliver. Where else in the building can a seventh grader get a chance to set methane bubbles on fire or generate mystic-looking fog with dry ice and a bucket? “I always start with […]