Mt. Carmel/ UAH / Women in Defense Collaboration

Please join Mt. Carmel Elementary as we welcome a team of brilliant UAH Engineering Design students striving to “design an environment in which children can be exposed to STEM early in their academic lives”.  Monday, September 14^th, 2015, UAH professor Dr. Christina Carmen’s Engineering Design students Project Team, sponsored by Women in Defense, will present an interactive STEM/Maker Fair to the Pre-K through 3^rd grade students of Mt. Carmel. 

Directly following the school’s PTA meeting at 6:00, parents and students are invited to investigate STEM topics ranging from simple construction designs to robotic toys.  There will be six different STEM stops to visit with a chance for hands on learning and family fun. 

Since June, 2015, this team of eight mechanical engineers has been working with Mrs. Cyndy Dunning, Library Media Specialist for Mt. Carmel Elementary, to reconfigure and improve the original sound-dampened STEM Station project built by UAH students two years ago.  Mt. Carmel students are anxiously awaiting the return of the STEM Stations sometime in early November, but they have been busy learning about the excitement of STEM topics through weekly MakerSpace Friday sessions organized by the school librarian and manned by parent and community volunteers like former engineer/new Kindergarten mom, A. Vandiver; former teacher/now volunteer mom, K. Harris, and Buckhorn High School senior/future librarian, L. Evans.  Cory Copeland, Customer Liaison for the UAH project team and Boeing intern has been pivotal in helping train volunteers in the new technology purchased by the librarian in preparation for MakerSpace Friday and has shared his enthusiasm with many students.

Having short enrichment opportunities each Friday to participate in creative STEM play has created an excitement at Mt. Carmel that we would like to share with you on Monday evening.  Thank you in advance for planning to attend the STEM/Maker Fair. We would love for you to join us in celebrating how libraries can be a pathway to STEM careers in the future.

Cyndy Dunning

Library Media Specialist

Mt. Carmel Elementary 

335 Homer Nance Road

Huntsville, AL  35811

@MTCESLibrary  http://www.facebook.com/Mt.CarmelLibrary

sharingstoriesandstem.blogspot.com

Project Team Members:  Garrett Bosse,Team Lead; Chris Hill, Co-Team Lead/ Manufacturer; Angela Crittenden, CAD/Meeting Secretary; Cory Copeland, Customer Liason; Seth Hill, CAD /Manufacturer; Michael Sanderson, Documentation Lead; Daniel Lewis, Co-Documenter; and Skrlett Perkins, Collaboration Manager.  

Dr. Christina Carmen, UAH Professor

Mrs. Deborah Fraley,

Women in Defense

   Sharing stories with children is such a privilege; helping them discover a love for reading is why being a librarian is the best job ever!  This year at Mt. Carmel Elementary, our students are stepping up to a new library reading challenge to become Genre Geniuses.  Inspired by author Jackie Mims Hopkins ' book, "Joe Bright and the Seven Genre Dudes" and encouraged by our teachers to revive my former genre reading program of years past, I spent a good bit of my summer modifying the old to blend with new to create this school-wide reading challenge.   The final result has been very exciting!

Students have loved hearing the story of Joe Bright, the Storyteller, and his new found Genre Dude friends and have begun looking at their books with new eyes.  Each of the Genre Dudes tells the reader about his genre and what type of literature they represent in the "Friends of the Forest Library". As a K-3 school, the focus so far has been mainly with 2nd and 3rd graders.  The idea of describing a book within the context of a genre has been quite a discovery to share.  The discussion has spurred excellent questions, which have led to even move questions! Each book identified by genre leads to the consideration of the next.  Connections are sparking and common interest are coming to light.

With this new challenge to read across the genres in our library, the students are earning Genre Brag Tags for reading three books in one genre.  After reading their chosen book and then taking an Accelerated Reader test on it, students then enter information about the book in a Google Form and submit the entry to the librarian using the online form.  Genre Genius Submission Form Initially the form seemed a bit foreboding to students not too familiar with inputting through the keyboard, but with assistance and encouragement the participation has doubled in one week's time (as of 9-3-15).

Parents can help students enter information in the Genre Genius Form by accessing Home Connect Accelerated Reader program.  Most of the information needed to complete the form can be found by viewing the student's "AR Bookshelf" in Home Connect.  Students will need to know how many pages are in their book to complete the form though, so this might require a search for the book on Amazon,com, a trip to the library to search for it on the computer, or remembering to enter this information in their AR Reading Log in the classroom.  To log into Home Connect you can use this link Mt. Carmel HOME CONNECT
 
Each student will receive an document describing the Genre Genius reading challenge and a Genre Dude Tally Sheet that has a description of each genre.  You will notice that there are eight genres listed on the tally sheet.  Although the seven genre dudes story is cute and reminds us of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as their librarian, I have included one more genre, Fantasy, to be sure and cover some of our favorite titles at Mt. Carmel like Clifford, Franklin and Thomas the Tank Engine, because these story lines could not possibly be real but don't fall under the folklore genre or any others represented by the seven genre dudes.  If you misplace your forms, here is a link to the documents stored online and available for sharing with our students and parents:  Genre Genius Forms  Please email me if you have any questions about our Genre Genius Reading Challenge Mrs. Dunning, Library Media Specialist

In closing, I would like to thank my friend and fellow Library Media Specialist, Jane Scott, LMS for Legacy Elementary, for sharing her genre brag tag program with her fellow librarians of Madison County Schools and sharing her time to walk me through the steps she took to set up an online accounting system that could help to manage a large number of participants. It was also wonderful having the support of author, Jackie Mims Hopkins as I worked out the details of adding one more genre to extend her story (she called me personally to discuss the program plans at length) and my students just love to know that the author really cares about their reading.  And finally, I would like to thank John Manders, Illustrator for the support he provided in developing our brag tag design. Although we could not ultimately use his drawings to create the brag tag illustrations, it's a wonderful lesson in copyright to share with the children.  Those illustrations Mr. Manders drew are now the property of Upstart Promotion, the company that published the book, the matching posters, the Genre Dude Trading Cards  Activity guide and Library Lessons that are free to download.