Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem
Ecosystem Workgroups
The work of the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem is made possible by the collaboration of over 800+ members who believe that everyone benefits when students succeed in STEM. Workgroups contribute to achieving our goals by advancing our mission and vision within a specific area of focus and by collaborating to accomplish work that has a meaningful deliverable and manageable. Our current Workgroups are:
Computer Science
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Bridging the digital divide to
create pathways into the tech workforce
Education for Sustainability
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Cultivating responsible
citizenship
Professional Development
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Empowering STEM educators to impact students
STEM Teacher Talent Development
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Developing diverse STEM Educators serving Philadelphia students
computer
Science
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computer
science
The vision of the Computer Science (CS) Workgroup is to help Philadelphia children and youth participate successfully in CS in high school, higher education, and career pathways, and careers. This Workgroup collaborates with CS4Philly to offer high quality CS activities to students who are primarily within the School District of Philadelphia. This Workgroup offers professional development for teachers and helps them procure 7th-12th grade CS Certification. Recently, the CS workgroup received a National Science Foundation planning grant entitled “Jumpstarting Philly CS4All.”
Co-chairs
Professor of Computer Science, Drexel University
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Jamie Payton, D.Sc.
Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Information Sciences, Temple University
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education for sustainability
The Education for Sustainability (EfS) Workgroup, in collaboration with PHENND Sustainability (Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development), strives to generate and strengthen regional partnerships among K-12 schools, community organizations and higher education institutions that integrate learning, teaching, and research with advance sustainability, climate resiliency, and environmental justice in the Greater Philadelphia area.
We aim to create and support opportunities for students to engage in place-based learning that are informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a call to action by the international community. Also, this Workgroup connects teachers with EfS resources, EfS Standards, and authentic place-based pedagogies for their classrooms.
Co-chairs
professional
development
The Professional Development (PD) Workgroup seeks to connect PD providers with STEM educators, so that these providers can best serve the needs of teachers and. This Workgroup regularly surveys formal and informal educators to ascertain their specific PD needs, and then strives to meet these needs through its extensive network of PD opportunities. This Workgroup was also instrumental in developing the PD portion of Philadelphia STEM Education Directory.
Co-chairs
TBD​
STEM Teacher talent Development
The goal of the STEM Teacher Talent Development Workgroup is to strengthen the STEM teacher pipeline and increase the number of diverse STEM educators serving Philadelphia students. It will address two recommendations from the City of Philadelphia’s July 2022 report, Citywide Strategy for Diverse and High-Quality Teachers; it will articulate pathways to teaching, and facilitate early exposure to teaching for two high priority groups - high school and college students. This Workgroup collaborates with PRISE (Philadelphia Regional Institute for STEM Educators
Co-chairs
Professor of Education
La Salle University
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Associate Professor, Department of Teacher Education
Saint Joseph's University
Any member of the Ecosystem can volunteer to chair a Workgroup based on an interest in addressing a specific need. Workgroup chairs assemble a team of diverse stakeholders who have lived experience with the problem being tackled. Together the group defines what success will look like and executes their plan. Workgroups can begin and end at any time. A full description of Workgroup roles and responsibilities can be seen below:
characteristics of successful workgroups
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Align their work with one or more of the parts of the Ecosystem mission. As Workgroups develop their own goals and scope of work, they should be able to draw a strong connection to the part of the mission that the work will advance.
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Hold regular meetings and make progress on their scope of work as appropriate between meetings.
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Leverage the expertise of individual members to capitalize on shared interest and experience.
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Collaborate to accomplish work that can both have a meaningful deliverable and is a realistic task for a group of volunteers.
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Identify as part of the whole Ecosystem and look for opportunities to coordinate with other Workgroups, to prevent duplication of efforts across the Workgroups themselves.
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Promote access to local STEM education offerings and deepen awareness of the need for equity and social justice in the specific area of focus.
workgroup roles
& responsibilities
Workgroup Members:
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Must be, or register as, a member of the larger Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem.
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Attend Workgroup meetings or contribute ideas virtually as the Workgroup design allows.
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Participate in activities as able, offering time and expertise to advance the work of the Workgroup.
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Workgroup Co-Chairs:
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Facilitate meetings, ensuring that mission-aligned work moves forward over time.
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Appoint one Co-Chair to serve on the Ecosystem Steering Committee; this Co-Chair provides updates to the Steering Committee and the Ecosystem as a whole.
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Actively recruit, as needed or as appropriate, members from their professional networks to join the Workgroup and Ecosystem.
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If needed, suggest a policy among members for meeting attendance guidelines.
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Communicate with core members regarding their participation as needed.
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If stepping down, assist in recruiting a replacement in collaboration with the remaining Co-Chair.
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workgroup
logistics
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Meetings can take place in person or virtually.
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Chairs or assigned members share the dates of meetings with the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem Manager at spayne@philaedfund.org
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When possible, Workgroup meeting minutes are taken and disseminated to the Workgroup members, and posted on the Ecosystem’s Google Folder.
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Small amounts of funding are available for renting space for meetings, providing snacks, sponsoring relevant events, printing materials, etc. Our backbone organization, the Philadelphia Education Fund has meeting space available for Workgroups that would like to meet there.
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Workgroups consist of the Co-chairs and a small core of working members. The PSE maintains a list of other STEM Ecosystem members who are not interested in joining a Workgroup but who would like updates on Workgroup efforts and opportunities to volunteer on projects, as needed.