USF and Nielsen add to CDS STEEM Programs

Carrollwood Day School has entered into two community partnerships that aim to better engage students in meaningful STEEM activities and spark an interest in STEEM education and career fields. These partnerships align with Carrollwood Day School’s mission to “create entrepreneurial thinkers for a global society.”

Over the summer, administrators and teachers met with leadership teams from Nielsen and University of South Florida’s Mathematics Education Doctoral Program to begin planning and to set goals for these collaborations.

Using Improvement Science to Transform STEM Curriculum
The project with the University of South Florida supports the research recommendations by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and is entitled “Using Improvement Science to Transform STEM Curriculum.” USF is excited to have the opportunity to work with CDS faculty to provide the important bridge from research to practice. Initially USF will work with the middle school and high school math departments. As Dr. Ruthmae Sears, Assistant Professor at USF in the Department of Teaching and Learning, explained, “CDS has great teachers who will become super teachers by empowering them with their own knowledge. The goal is to make CDS the best worldwide.”  Members of the USF team will come to CDS monthly to meet with teachers, observe them as cognitive coaches, and will share unique resources and opportunities for professional collaboration with the CDS teachers. The CDS math teachers have begun developing aim statements that will target areas in which they want to create sustained improvement. 

USF has also opened doors to CDS faculty to collaborate with other leading K-12 and university mathematics educators. USF has submitted a proposal for CDS to co-present with USF at the Annual Hawaii Conference on Education and the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM). CDS has been approved to become a member of the APLU-Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) and will have the opportunity to provide insights in the experiences of K-12 educators to this esteemed academic group. Dr. Sears is also a member of MTEP’s research action cluster (RAC) devoted to clinical experiences where she serves as a sub-RAC team leader for co-planning and co-teaching.  CDS has been invited to participate in any of the five MTEP- RAC, namely:  Developing effective clinical experiences, Module(S)², Actively learning mathematics, Marketing for attracting teacher hopefuls (MATH), and secondary teacher retention and induction in diverse educational settings (STRIDES). USF will also make it possible for CDS math teachers to test drive new teaching ideas with avatar students in UCF’s TeachLivE™ mixed-reality classroom.

This is the beginning of a two-year partnership with USF that is planned to be extended to the other STEEM disciplines at CDS.

Nielsen
Nielsen is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, cross-platform media measurement, and digital intelligence. The Oldsmar campus is home to Nielsen’s global technology and innovation center, referred to by the Associated Press as “its so-called nerve center.”

For the past three years, CDS parents and Nielsen executives, Kim Anstett and Marie Gutgesell, have been instrumental in making it possible for CDS middle school classes to visit Nielsen’s Oldsmar office to see STEM careers in action. Nielsen sees their participation in STEM initiatives as vital to their business given the significance of science, technology, engineering and math in their industry. Nielsen also considers it their corporate social responsibility to focus resources on education, one of four priority causes for their Nielsen Cares program.

In August, Kim Anstett, Executive Sponsor for Nielsen/CDS STEM Program, brought a team of Nielsen engineers, data scientists, web developers, and others to meet with CDS administrators and teachers from grades 1 – 12.  She shared that Nielsen’s investment with CDS “is strong because of what CDS brings to us.  Your enthusiasm and desire to expand the experience from a one day field trip to a full rich experience helped drive this relationship.” At that meeting Nielsen outlined the following goals for their partnership with CDS: 

• Share real life experiences and connect the classroom to STEM careers via Nielsen projects
• Express the importance of STEM through Tech Talks
• Provide students mentorship through access to Nielsen technology teams
• Participate in CDS programs and projects as advisors and panel feedback

The Nielsen team came armed with enthusiasm and potential ideas on ways to collaborate with CDS faculty and students to provide meaningful hands-on experiences. Engagement opportunities they shared included:

• Create your own social medial platform: Develop a mobile app using Nielsen data and Google Apps
• Mini Celebrity Ratings: Survey your classmates on their favorite stars and provide a recommendation about which stars should be endorsing different brands
• Mentorship, Advisory & Feedback: Set up Tech Talks, help organize a STEM Career Fair at CDS, provide job shadowing opportunities 

The goal of this partnership is to help make tech and STEM learning authentic.  The many young professionals on the Nielsen team are passionate about what they do and are eager to help make our students’ learning more meaningful. They want to facilitate students becoming engaged in real-world STEM activities and help spark an interest in STEM careers.

CDS is thrilled to bring both of these exceptional partnership opportunities to our faculty and students. These notable professional development and student engagement experiences are sure to propel Carrollwood Day School’s STEEM learning (and teaching) to new heights.