STEM Symposium marks third year at ECU

Preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist is no small task, but for hundreds of educators gathered at East Carolina University, it is the reality shaping their classrooms.

About 375 K-12 teachers from across North Carolina attended ECU’s third annual STEM Symposium on July 28 and 29, an event focused on equipping educators with hands-on strategies, professional connections and research-based practices they can take into the upcoming school year.

Kayla Norville, standing, leads “Donuts and Science” during ECU’s third annual STEM Symposium, showing educators how to teach K–5 students that yeast is a living organism through a hands-on experiment. (Photo by Steven Mantilla)

Hosted on ECU’s main campus, the symposium brought together educators, university faculty and industry partners with a shared goal of strengthening STEM education and preparing students for an evolving workforce.

The event featured a keynote session with Leonard Paulk III, a former ECU football player and regional director of philanthropy for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plains, who challenged teachers to rethink what STEM education is really about.

“We need to teach kids how to think, not memorize and repeat,” Paulk said. “As we go through the session today, it’s a mindset shift.”

Paulk reminded educators that many of the careers their students will one day hold do not exist yet, a reality he called both exciting and overwhelming.

“No one knows because many of those jobs do not exist today,” he said. “But here’s the good news. Our job is not to predict the future. Our job is to prepare students to create.”

He also offered a new way for teachers to talk with students about failure.

“Fail. That’s your first attempt at learning,” Paulk said. “If you attempt something and you fail, you’re going to reflect from it, and you’re going to grow from it.”

He closed his keynote with a challenge that echoed throughout the rest of the symposium.

“The future is not something that we wait for,” Paulk said. “The future is something that we build.”

ECU Provost Chris Buddo struck a similar note, telling educators that the work happening in their classrooms ripples far beyond the school day.

“For many of you, you have the privilege of being the first person helping those students see themselves as a scientist, engineer, mathematician, technologist or innovator,” Buddo said.

He credited the College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Education for bringing the symposium together and pointed to collaboration as the foundation of STEM education’s future.

“It depends on our willingness to collaborate,” Buddo said. “It depends on our willingness to unite, and to work for shared goals.”

For Carla Barker, an instructor with STARBASE at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, that spirit of collaboration is exactly what keeps her coming back.

“I came last year. It was great,” Barker said. “I really like the strategies I learned.”

Guests explore the vendor and resource expo during ECU’s third annual STEM Symposium, connecting with organizations and learning through interactive displays. (Photo by Steven Mantilla)

Barker, who works with fifth graders through the Department of Defense’s STEM outreach program, said she returned this year hoping to walk away with even more.

First-time attendee Angela Kearney, a middle school science teacher at New Christian Academy, had never heard of the symposium before an email landed in her inbox. She said she is glad it did.

“I love to get my students up and moving and engaged,” Kearney said. “That is my favorite part, and just enticing their curiosity about science.”

The symposium featured four rounds of breakout sessions throughout the day, offering professional learning, demonstrations and classroom ready activities on topics ranging from water quality investigations to artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing and renewable energy design challenges, plus a crowd favorite catapult building session known as “punkin chunkin.”

Tuesday added optional two hour deep dive workshops in math and science pedagogy along with industry tours for teachers who wanted to go even further.

Kayla Norville, a STEM educator with a doctorate in STEM Education with a focus in science education, led one of the symposium’s most anticipated hands-on sessions.

Her lesson, “Donuts and Science,” gave educators a creative way to teach K–5 students that yeast is a living organism through a doughnut-based experiment, blending everyday materials with scientific concepts.

Norville, who returned to the classroom after several years away and now teaches while leading sessions of her own, said the symposium fills a need that goes beyond curriculum.

“I miss being around professionals and colleagues, and I just want to share some things,” Norville said.

She hopes the teachers in her session leave with something they can use in their classrooms.

“I hope that they can take any ideas that they learn from my sessions back to their classroom, to their students,” Norville said. “Even if they don’t use the same labs that I do, maybe they can figure out a good way to incorporate it into their lessons.”

For Norville, the reunion aspect matters just as much as the content.

“Really forming myself and networking, seeing colleagues that I haven’t seen in forever, and meeting new teachers, just sharing ideas,” she said.

The symposium also helps schools work toward the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s STEM Schools of Distinction designation, giving the two days of hands-on learning a lasting payoff back home.

Buddo said that payoff is the whole point.

“Innovation accelerates when we come together around a common purpose,” he said. “Your presence here demonstrates a commitment to that mission.”

As this year’s symposium wrapped up, teachers headed back to their districts with new lesson ideas, new colleagues and, for many, a reason to already be looking forward to next summer and next year’s symposium.

As Paulk told the room on his way out, the work does not stop when the symposium does.

“Keep inspiring curiosity,” he said. “Keep building innovators. Keep changing lives.”

A teacher tries to flip a small orange foam ball into a cup using a catapult created with a plastic spoon, rubber bands and popsicle sticks as part of a hands-on lab during the STEM Symposium. (Photo by Ken Buday)

Leonard Paulk III, regional director of philanthropy at the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Plains, gives the keynote address during the STEM Symposium, telling educators they are preparing students for careers that may not even exist yet. (Photo by Ken Buday)