Today on Education Counts Michiana, the STEM New Educator Academy, CTE Aviation in Plymouth, mood boosting foods for students.

Bilingual story walk.

Education counts, Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, investing in education and economic development for centuries, supporting the past current and future development of the Michiana region.

Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Inspire Good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation, where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, LaGrange County Community Foundation.

NIPSCO.

The Beim Foundation.

Crossroads United Way, serving Elkhart, LaGrange and Noble Counties.

United Way of St. Joseph County, Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow St. Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

Welcome to Education Counts, Michiana, I'm your host, James Summers.

Education Counts highlights programs and initiatives that are impacting how we teach, how we learn and how we embrace education.

The program explores ideas in all education sectors; preschool through lifelong learning, K-12, post-high school and job advancement training with the philosophy that we should never stop seeking knowledge.

Find additional resources at WNIT.org and on the Education Counts Facebook page.

First up, learning to teach STEM.

To help new teachers, Butler University created the STEM New Educator Academy.

Participants will learn about STEM education through different workshops and classes provided by a partnership that includes the Children's Museum of Indianapolis Codelicious and the Indianapolis Zoo.

Segment Producer Brent Fox presents this segment.

As a way to give new teachers a chance to learn about STEM education, Butler University created the STEM New Educator Academy.

It is a robust professional development program that includes 100 hours of training for new teachers with mentors, and it excite--it's exciting because we have powerhouse partners including the Indianapolis Zoo, Codelicious and the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and it's through Butler University College of Education and open to any First-Year teacher or zero to three year teacher in the state, depending on school needs.

And Butler will not be doing it alone, thanks to a partnership with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis Codelicious and the Indianapolis Zoo.

Within this program, they get to experience all sorts of kind of earth shaking professional development opportunities.

So, for example, if they come to the zoo for a prof--professional development opportunity or session, they might learn about conservation education and how that fits with their classroom context and their curriculum.

And so from a college of education standpoint, we highlight the great pedagogical strategies or how people learn strategies and talk about how the positive teaching elements fit within the curriculum.

We are going to be doing a variety--we would be doing some professional development for the teachers, so I think there are six--sixty teachers that will be involved.

So we'll be doing professional development for those teachers.

Then each one of those teachers will also receive a zoo membership so that they can come back and use the zoo as a resource for their--their projects that they might want to do in their classrooms.

And then we will also do field trips for sixty classrooms.

The role for Codelicious in this is that which is computer science and computational thinking.

But the exciting piece of that is that within computer science, it really crosses many different content areas.

So as you're thinking about project based learning and the ability to supply critical thinking and computer science concepts to any practical everyday application, the multipliers become amazingly exciting about how interacting with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Zoo and of course, all the amazing research resources that Butler University can bring to this.

It really amplifies our ability as a provider of both computer science curriculum and professional development to--to help grow the educators that become part of this initiative.

We will spend a chunk of time learning about how do you teach science?

How do you engage students in STEM through the lens of fossils and dinosaurs, which we know is a huge hook for students.

Then we will provide a second session, which again will just be diving in a little bit more on how do you teach science and think about our exhibits and how do you use an exhibit at a museum or even a mini exhibit in your classroom to have kids engage in STEM.

The STEM New Educator Academy is geared towards not only developing the next generation of teachers, but to also provide them with the resources and support they need to get kids excited about learning.

This is an opportunity for those new teachers to dive a little bit more into STEM and dig a little bit more into how do I teach STEM?

How do I engage students in STEM?

So I think that's very important.

It's an additional resource.

But also, having been a teacher myself, that first year teaching can feel very isolating.

And you think I am the only one that's struggling or I'm the only one that has these questions.

And so this program puts new teachers together and it pairs them with a mentor during that critical first year.

We want to get STEM education out there to students, and in order for that to happen, I think teachers are the key part of getting the new generation of science and technology and engineering and math in the hands of those students.

And those are the skills that they're going to need if they're going to help, especially in, well, just in the world in general.

But in the area of conservation especially, that's the way we're going to save many of the species in the wild places that are left in the world is through STEM program--or STEM education being, you know, someone who is fluent in those things is going to be able to be the generation that's going to be able to save those things.

In the end, kind of, teachers and their content knowledge and their comfort and excitement and confidence in teaching these--these--these core competencies to students, particularly in K-6, has a direct impact on those students who themselves become excited about and interested in and desire to move forward in learning more about them.

This grant was focused on teacher recruitment and retention, and we know that it's extraordinarily challenging your first few years.

You have--you're juggling everything and you tend to burn out when things get really intense.

So through this, we know that teacher pay and a sense of community belonging really anchors teachers in their setting.

So, Indiana.

And so to be connected with powerhouse institutions that are that kind of define the state, we're hoping to build that collegial aspect and a connection to a place while enhancing their professional growth.

Learn more at WNIT.org.

Earning their wings.

In Plymouth, Indiana, area high schoolers are taking to the skies as flight students.

Graduates of this two-year program gained 20 hours of college credit, 10 hours of flight time towards their private pilot's license.

But what sets this relatively young program apart is how quickly attentive career counselors created it by recognizing and responding to trends in a high wage, high demand field.

Segment producer Scott Palmer has this story.

There's no question the rising popularity of high school CTE programs reflects a shift in the old college for all mindset.

I did the traditional round of college and it worked out just great for me, but that's not the path for everyone and nor should it be.

And it's important for us to find what a student is passionate about and then try and figure out if we can assist them.

If there's a way to make a career out of it, make a living doing it.

Career and technical education is the way to do that.

And one of the most popular CTE programs in Plymouth, Indiana, is helping high school juniors and seniors discover their passion for flight.

Overall, it's a two year program.

The first year is mostly flight training.

In my class, we do ground school.

So in a similar way, you would get your driver's license, you study a book, you take a written test, you practice your driving skills and then you go out with a driving instructor and they make sure that you're safe on the road.

Same thing happens with us is that their students observing that student pilot, but the flight certified flight instructor has control at all times.

They also get in the first year, five hours of flight time.

So for many of my students, it's the first time they've had a chance to be on a small plane.

So, you know, find out early if this is something that you like.

And then the second year is aviation operations, all the things that happen behind the scene, how to run an airport, how to make sure that the runway's safe, weather.

On top of that, they'll also get five hours of flight time the second year, as well as five more hours in the--in the simulator.

And those are all hours that they can put down as they work to their private pilot life.

By the time they finish here, they'll have ten hours.

They will absolutely know if flight is for them.

Graduates are well on their way to any of several aviation careers, both in the air and on the ground, thanks to a partnership with Ivy Tech.

Given it's a two year program, they could walk out with twenty hours of college credit at no cost to them or their family, which is really, when you're talking about is it a good deal?

Holy cow.

Yes.

Plymouth's Aviation Program is held up as a model not just for the program, but how it was created.

Its launch in 2018 was the perfect example of cooperation between industry, administration and these two guidance counselors.

The aviation industry as a whole has been challenged with having enough people come into the industry, largely due to lack of awareness and lack of interest.

Republic Airways in Indianapolis is one of the largest regional airlines in the U.S.

It's a sort of minor league.

About a third of Republic's pilots move up to the majors every year, and that turnover is where this story really starts.

So hiring a former school counselor that knew how to help students in their career development and career awareness opportunities, they asked me to come in and get creative to think about ways we could help with that.

So first thing I did was reach out to the school counseling community.

I was--had been a private pilot for a long time, so I always had an interest in aviation.

And my last year working at Plymouth High School as a guidance counselor, got an invitation from Republic Airlines down in Indianapolis.

They were doing an open house for their Lift Academy, which is a training facility.

And of course, you know, like, heck yeah, I'm going.

My pitch was really this is an opportunity to help give students information about a career they may not know about.

One that's certainly a high wage, high demand and exciting career path and one that does not require that traditional four-year college degree.

Got down there and realized there were other high schools in the state that were doing aviation programs.

Why aren't we doing them here?

The next step was to call Albert Hanselman, CTE director.

And ask me if I'd ever considered starting an aviation program.

I told him that I had.

And he goes, I've been thinking about doing this for years.

I just never knew how to get it going.

One thing led to another, and there were several people in this very room who sat down at the table, the mayor of Plymouth, legal counsel for Plymouth, Superintendent of schools.

Add to the mix, two entrepreneurs conveniently ready to launch a flight school of their own and an airport operations manager ready to boost this airport's visibility.

I have not heard a pilot yet come into our class and go.

You might want to think about this career.

By the time we got done, I think everybody around the table was like, This is a good idea.

Let's do it.

Timing was, you know, when other schools say, how did you do this?

How can we do it at our school?

I mean., Sometimes it's like, you know, we scratch our heads because we're not sure everything fell together, it was just timing and we had the right people at the table.

The right people, including students discovering a new passion and a new career.

Yeah, I had no idea when we first started having this conversation just how interested students would be in learning how to fly.

I think that whenever you take off, you know, it's almost like you're soul's on--on--on the planet still and then, when you land, your soul goes right back into you.

So you know, it's--it's--it's the feeling of sheer relief and it's just joyful.

I mean, if you see him landing after the first flight, you're going to see the big grins on their face.

So they're hooked.

Learn more about CTE Aviation at WNIT.org.

Better moods through better foods.

It can be hard for students to learn when they're not in the right mood.

Chartwells K-12 is teaching kids about which foods can best affect their moods through a program called Mood Boost.

The Mood Boost program is all about helping students learn about how the food that they eat regularly impacts how they feel and not just their physical health, but their mental health as well.

So it's based on emerging research about how your eating pattern over time can impact not just your gut health or your brain health, but just your overall well-being.

But we aim to communicate this in a way that is both fun and understandable to kids, and so we explain to them that they--if they just eat a variety of great foods, things like fruits and vegetables, it can really boost their mood, really designed just to help students learn about how the food they eat can impact how they feel.

And it's intended to be a fun way to get students to enjoy a diet full of fruits and vegetables.

We make sure not to get too scientific.

We don't focus on how some nutrient compound in the food impacts a certain outcome.

To make it understandable to kids, we--we just want them to understand that what you eat impacts how you feel.

To encourage kids to pick foods that are better for them, Chartwells K-12 decided to focus on six moods, in particular.

The six moods that we focus on our happy, smart, calm, confident, alert and strong.

And there are tons of foods that have an impact on all of these.

So we really focus on having kids try a variety of these foods so that they just have an overall sense of well-being.

We chose those six because we think that students can relate the most to those and also because they have the strongest body of emerging evidence that support that eating a healthy diet can impact those feelings of well-being.

And so we have a large team of chefs and dietitians that have developed dozens of mood boosting recipes that are really the driver of the program that kids get the chance to boost their mood with at school.

Of course, different methods need to be used depending on the ages of the students.

We have a different approach of implementing good news depending on the age of the students.

So ideally, it takes place over seven weeks.

The week one is about helping students understand the concept of mood boosting foods, really building excitement for what's to come.

And then each of the subsequent weeks we're talking about the different foods now at the elementary level, we talk about the moods in relation to these characters that we refer to as the Moodies.

So they have these little monster-type characters.

Whereas then in the middle school level, we we swap out the Moodies for icons.

And then the biggest piece of the program is really these taste testing events so the students can get those off the line as part of the lunch.

Or there could be a chef demo with a more formal taste testing setup in the cafeteria.

And there's different ways to get kids to try the better mood boosting foods.

We try to sometimes sample kid favorites so things like watermelon, strawberries.

But we also try to serve it in a way that students might not have seen before.

So, for example, one of the first Mood Boost events I went to, we served strawberry avocado yogurt smoothies.

So kids love strawberries.

Some of them, though, were a little bit apprehensive about avocados because they had never tried them before, or we'd never had them in a smoothie before.

But once they gave it a try, they loved it and they were coming back for seconds and thirds.

So those are just a couple examples of some of the mood boosting foods that we promote.

Making sure students are ready to learn by making sure they eat right has always been a major concern.

We launched Mood Boost back in 2019, so that was before the pandemic, and at that time it was common to see articles being written about how kids, how Generation Z was having struggle with mental health, things like anxiety and depression.

And then we know the pandemic has really only made things worse.

So that makes mood boost and programs like it more valuable now than ever, because it's all about making our bodies as healthy as possible.

And programs like Mood Boost are teaching kids to make healthier food choices, not just now, but as they continue to grow.

Students are going to school every day and they are coming into the cafeteria every day, so they have a lot of opportunity to be building healthy habits now that are going to carry through their lifetime.

So we want to get kids excited about trying those different foods.

We know that it might take five, ten, even twenty exposures to a food to really develop a taste for it.

So through this program, we make it fun and exciting to try those different foods in the hopes that they won't just be eating it at school, but then they'll want to eat those foods at home.

And then as they grow into adulthood as well.

Find out more at WNIT.org.

Taking a walk.

A story walk is a good way for families to get reading and get moving at the same time.

At Bendix Woods Park in South Bend, a bilingual story walk helps readers learn about diversity of nature and culture.

Many of us our best learning doesn't happen when we're sitting still.

Often our best learning comes through movement and experiencing.. A story walk is a concept that was developed by somebody in Vermont.

She was a chronic disease prevention specialist at the time, and she was looking to create something that was fun, something that really allowed parents to be active as the children.

It consists of signs along a trail that tell a story.

So each sign has the pages of a book, and you just get to read the book as you walk along in a beautiful outdoor setting.

This setting is Bendix Woods County Park in South Bend.

It's not the first story walk St. Joseph County Parks has created, but it's one of the most unique.

Like the book, it features this story.

Walk has its own story about inclusion and partnership between new friends.

There is an IUSB professor who contacted us about the possibility of doing a bilingual story walk.

My students were studying about parks and their environmental class and how to make the parks inclusive and welcoming to all.

We got the idea for a story walk from the migration of the Monarch butterfly and its beauty and symbolism for Mexican-Americans.

Monarch migration is such a good frame to discuss topics like history and immigration.

She's raising and releasing several of the butterflies herself.

The monarchs crossed the borders from Mexico into the US, into Canada and back again over four generations.

And it connects those who may have relatives abroad and--and I'm one of them.

To help her idea take flight, Professor Tetzlaff reached out.

She had seen our story walks up at St. Patrick's County Park and thought how wonderful it would be to have one in Spanish and English.

Since our community has many, many Spanish speakers in it.

Here at the St. Joseph County, parks were always looking for ways to connect people with the natural world, and a story walk is a really wonderful way to do that.

So we thought a lot about the best story for that, the best setting for it.

This particular setting, the prairie here at Bendix Woods is a beautiful monarch habitat.

We see lots of monarchs here over the course of the summer and fall, and I think it's a richer experience when the setting connects to the story.

With the idea and the setting in mind, the new team made a third connection to find the right book.

And they approached me to help in the collaboration to create this story walk.

So my role was to help find a book that was appropriate.

I think a big part that a librarian can do is to look at the books and choose a book that is appropriate for the reading level.

For this story, what we were looking for an early literacy component that would be interesting for young children, but also families together.

We're looking for vibrant pictures.

We're looking for the flow of the story.

So when the story is broken up page by page, we want to make sure that the breaks make sense and can be carried over from station to station.

Hurry and The Monarch stood out right away with the flow of the narrative the personification of the animals.

Hurry is a turtle that befriends this monarch, and the monarch tells the story of the migration and of the life cycle of the monarch.

And it's a beautiful story that flows seamlessly.

It was only published in English, so fortunately at IUSB, there was there was a professor and some students who were able to translate the entire story.

The bilingual story walk is free with park admission.

While anyone can create a story walk of their own with the right book materials and location.

These organizers say it's better to find friends.

We couldn't have done this without our partnerships with IUSB and with the public library system.

They have such valuable expertize in their fields that would have been very clumsy if we tried to do these things alone.

Check out WNIT.org for more information on all of these stories.

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Education counts, Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, investing in education and economic development for centuries, supporting the past current and future development of the Michiana region.

Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Inspire Good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation, where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, LaGrange County Community Foundation.

NIPSCO.

The Beim Foundation.

Crossroads United Way, serving Elkhart, LaGrange and Noble Counties.

United Way of St. Joseph County, Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow St. Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

This unity, local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.