Discovery Education has become one of the premiere sites that educators turn to for everything from professional development ideas to lesson plans. Now, the company is focusing on improving STEM teaching and learning with three new services, STEM Foundations, STEMformation and STEM Leader Corps.

“Produced and delivered by Discovery Education’s team of nationally recognized STEM and professional development experts, these new resources support school systems in building and sustaining a culture of STEM education through a unique combination of immersive professional development initiatives, job-embedded instructional coaching, rich digital content, and extensive community engagement,” according to a recent press release from the company.

STEM Foundations focuses on the growth of STEM educators’ and administrators’ knowledge of the material they are responsible for in order to increase their expertise and leadership in STEM.

“STEM Foundations empowers participating school systems to build a custom combination of full-day professional development opportunities, job-embedded coaching, support in building community engagement and awareness, and more to create a unique STEM capacity building initiative,” according to the release.

STEMformation is "a comprehensive, three year-system for building a culture of STEM at individual school sites, STEMformation guides educators as they master STEM instructional strategies.” Finally, STEM Leader Corps is "a four-year system for scaling STEM education district wide, STEM Leader Corp is a sustainable capacity building model that develops and nurtures teachers and administrators as they build a culture of STEM teaching and learning in their school system.”

“To truly transform teaching and learning, we must invest in building the capacity of our educators and administrators,” said Tim Wyrosdick, Superintendent of Florida’s Santa Rosa County School District, in the Discovery Education release.

“Discovery Education’s STEM professional development and resources will help Santa Rosa County School District build the innovative learning environments our teachers and students need, and support our educators in delivering world-class STEM instruction for every student, every day.”

By increasing the resources for teachers and administrations, Discovery Education is looking to create a more informed faculty in schools nationwide, which, if done successfully, could yield a very bright future for students who wish to pursue STEM careers.

Read the full release and comment below.

Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor