STEMposium coming to Chattahoochee Valley

More than 300 folks from around the world are expected to gather in Phenix City next year for the inaugural local conference on improving education in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math.

Phenix City Schools, in conjunction with Discovery Education, announced Monday that the Chattahoochee Valley’s first annual STEMposium will be June 26-28, 2017.

“We are going to do an in-depth look at STEM and STEM culture, STEM education as it applies to, really K-20, but our focus of the STEMposium will be K-12,” said Phenix City Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes.

The sites for the conference will involve both sides of the Chattahoochee River: the $2.1 million Dyer Family STEM Center, being constructed at Phenix City Intermediate School, and the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus.

“Phenix City Schools is not capable right now reaching out across the globe, but our partner is,” Wilkes said. “… We will literally be bringing STEM enthusiasts, if you will, from all over the world into Phenix City and the Valley area.”

Experts from Discovery Education, which provides professional development for Phenix City teachers, will deliver the keynote presentations. Silver Spring, Md.-based Discovery Education, a subsidiary of Discovery Communications LLC, which also comprises the Discovery Channel, provides digital content aligned with state curriculum standards and trains teachers to effectively deliver that high-tech instruction.

Amy Knower, the partnerships director for Discovery Education, said her company will help promote the STEMposium.

“We are going to be sending out word to amazing educators all over the globe and saying, ‘Please come. Please come and see what we’re doing here,” she said.

And what Phenix City is doing, Knower said, is embracing STEM education in a dynamic way better than any of the hundreds of communities she has visited.

“I’ve never seen anything like what Phenix City is trying to do, in total, anywhere else in the world,” Knower said. “I’ve never seen a place that is concentrated on professional development, the community development, putting in a STEM center for all of your students and thinking about how to leverage that across all of the grade levels, being able to think about how to bring innovative curriculum into the classroom to address not just your standards but address the real needs of your students, who are going to be leaving Phenix City as young adults and embarking on higher education and careers and hopefully coming back to this area and bringing innovation and entrepreneurialism and business.”

The STEMposium is billed as a prime example of “edutourism,” a travel experience scheduled around an engaging educational activity. The STEMposium sessions are scheduled to end at 3:30 p.m. each day so participants can take advantage of the attractions in the Columbus-Phenix City area – “everything from zip-lining to whitewater to Springer Opera House or the (National) Infantry Museum,” Wilkes said.

Several community leaders attended the announcement, including Phenix City’s mayor, chamber of commerce chairman and education foundation president.

Mayor Eddie Lowe said, “I just appreciate the effort, the opportunity that we have. Tourism is important, but the most important thing is to educate our children and ultimately that’s what is taking place.”

Wade Burford, the president and chief executive officer for CB&T of East Alabama, who chairs the Phenix City-Russell County Chamber of Commerce, said, “It fits right in with where our strategies are going forward. This is very exciting, and it’s great to see us all kind of pointed in the same direction, knowing what’s the basis of what’s going to get us to be a better community. We are lockstep with you all the way.”

Pat Waldrop, president of the Phenix City Education Foundation, called the STEMposium “the most progressive thing that we’ve taken on in years, and I’m so delighted to see us moving forward with this, both in the Columbus area and Phenix City and working together is just phenomenal to just sit back and watch. I’m thrilled.”

Wilkes added with a laugh, “Well, you’re going to do more than watch, I’m sure.”

Waldrop sparked more laughter with her reply: “I gotta make biscuits?”

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "STEMposium coming to Chattahoochee Valley."