Professional Learning

STEMACES provides two types of professional learning opportunities for teachers in the program:

• A week-long, face-to-face Summer Institute where teachers are provided lodging, and meals, and can immerse themselves in the methods and materials that enable the STEMACES activities to bring science and engineering to life.
• Shorter, virtual/hybrid, school-year professional learning sessions where teachers refresh skills, share teaching strategies, and analyze student work. The sessions are scheduled according to need, and teachers can request up to eight during the school year.

A standout feature of STEMACES professional learning is that teachers first solve real engineering challenges themselves—supported by facilitators. Teachers use a web-based programming environment with a set of actual electronics we call the LbyM platform. The platform includes a breadboard and microcontroller connected to a computer running a browser-based Web App with modifiable scripts. Teachers then take that lived experience back to their classrooms to replicate the same kind of learning with students. Additional electronics used during STEMACES professional learning to authentically address challenges include:

Additional electronics used during STEMACES professional learning to authentically address challenges include:

• Wires, LEDs, and resistors
• Light, temperature, and ultrasonic sensors
• Data visualization and analysis tools like CODAP
• Virtual learning labs like PhET

Across engineering design challenges, modeling tasks, and science investigations, teachers progress from simple circuits (like designing their own connectivity testers) to more complex systems that employ sensors, control outputs, and support investigations.

Teachers practice:

• Engineering design with criteria, constraints, and datasheets
• Coding and debugging in an accessible, beginner-friendly environment
• Systems thinking (inputs, outputs, interactions, information flow)
• Modeling and revision through consensus system models and iterative modeling and feedback cycles
• Data practices, including collecting "messy" real-world sensor data and making sense of it

Facilitation is a defining strength of STEMACES professional development. The professional learning sessions create a climate where teachers feel empowered to try, revise, and persist. Facilitators model a "guide on the side" approach that invites participants to find answers through observation, collaboration, and tools like datasheets—mirroring the learning culture that is proven to be most impactful for students and their science learning.

Participating teachers have consistently described the professional learning environment as supportive and motivating—one noting that encouragement and collaboration created "a sense of safety to face my fears and take risks." This matters: when teachers experience productive struggle with support, they are better prepared to cultivate that same resilience and agency in their students.

Findings from surveys taken after the 2025 Summer Institute were overwhelmingly positive. Across activities, ratings clustered in the top categories ("Very Useful" and "Game Changing"), with no participants selecting "Not useful at all." Overall satisfaction was extremely high, with 92% rating the institute "Excellent" and the remaining 8% "Very Good."

By the third day of learning during the 2025 Summer Institute, teachers needed minimal help setting up and running increasingly sophisticated investigations—an important indicator that the professional learning design builds real competence, not just awareness.

STEMACES professional development stands out because it doesn't separate science learning from the practices that humans use to make sense of phenomena. Teachers learn to guide students through engineering design, computational thinking, systems modeling, and data analysis—powered by a platform that is flexible, balances simplicity with customizability, and collects real-world data.