INSPIREational News

I hope that you all had a wonderful break and it was full of all the things you enjoy! January 2015 marks the 2nd year of our INSPIRE grant (the grant runs on a calendar year and not a school year). We worked very hard last year to develop systems, instruments and gather baseline data. This year we will focus on improving those systems and growing. We are so blessed as a STEM family, I look forward to working with you all this year and making it the best year STEM has ever had!

We had large showing at the annual CCS Magnet Fair. STEM schools were represented well and very popular! We are excited for Magnet Applications to open on January 13th and anticipate the most applications Cabarrus County has ever seen! Our district has a lot to be proud of and STEM is certainly at the top of that list!

Our STEM schools all participated together at the 2nd Annual Airplane Competition on December 17th at Embassy Suites Resort and Spa. 60 of our K-12 STEM students worked together to engineer paper airplanes that soared through the 11 story atrium at the beautiful hotel. More more about this event and wonderful pictures of our students please read:

About the 2nd Annual Event

The winning teams and individuals

Great Pictures!!

Independent Tribune Article

Great job to Coltrane Webb STEM Elementary School, Patriots STEM Elementary School and JN Fries Magnet School for their terrific Science Fair projects! It is a very exciting time for our students to showcase their work! We look forward to results of the Regional Science Fair held at UNCC in January. Good Luck!

Our STEM Pipeline was recognized by the North Carolina School Board Association! Our program received an Honorable Mention in the category of Excellence in Educational Programs. We should be very proud of this!!!

We would all LOVE more time to collaborate, but of course we have many barriers that keep up from getting together as much as we would like. That is why a Schoology group has been created to reach each other virtually.

Using the groups that were formed at our last Vertical Alignment Professional Development Day I posted in "Discussions". There is one for each group and you can talk about your plans. Other discussions can be created at any time! I hope that you will find this to be a valuable tool to plan with other schools and teachers within STEM

To access the group:

• You must have an account with Schoology (talk with your TF if you do not have this)
• Go to cabarrus.schoology.com
  
• From your home screen you can go to Groups
• When the drop down screen appears, click "Join"
• An access code box will appear and you can enter the code: W334X-TRS99

January

6th - Annual K-12 STEM Conference at UNC Charlotte

6th - PES STEM Open House 5:30 - 7:30 PM

8th - JNFries STEM Open House 6:00-7:30 PM

12th - CWES STEM Open House 5:30-6:30

12th - CCHS STEM Open House 6:30-7:30

13th - CCS Magnet Applications are open

30th - CCS Magnet Applications closed

February

6th - Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UNC Charlotte

7th - Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UNC Charlotte

March

4th - Super Competition Day @ UNC Charlotte

14th - Regional Science Olympiad Tournament

26th - 1/2 Capped Day, STEM Innovative Teaching Practice Fair at UNCC

April

18th - CWES hosts Science Olympiad

June

6th - Science Olympiad-It’s Elementary! Regional Tournament

17th - STEM Curriculum Writing

18th - STEM Curriculum Writing

22-July 2 - STEM NASA Summer Camp

July

6-10 - STEMersion

August

3rd - STEM Curriculum Writing

4th - STEM Curriculum Writing

Please check it out here...

Please contact Bridget Jones with any comments or questions.

Email: Bridget.Jones@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
Website: http://www.cabarrus.k12.nc.us/Page/26685
Phone: 704-783-5939
Twitter: @ccsstem