UCF STEMS Throughout Florida Education

The University of Central Florida’s Center for Initiatives in STEM hosted the 12th annual Florida Engineering Education Conference on March 3, 2017. Over 200 teachers and professionals from all over Florida flocked to UCF’s Student Union to discuss teaching science, technology, engineering and math.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science started the conference in 2005. The Center for Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM) adopted the event in 2013. Today it is a collaborative effort between the Colleges of Education and Human Performance, Engineering and Computer Science, and Sciences focused on coordinating STEM initiatives across the university and surrounding community.

Melissa Dagley is the executive director of iSTEM. She described the conference as having three main purposes.

“The goals of the conference are to highlight the importance of pre-college STEM education with ‘day to day’ workforce applications, to showcase STEM education models or programs and to serve as an information hub for educators, administrators and industry partners alike,” Dagley said.

Many members of the UCF community participated at the conference. Associate Lecturer Stacy M. Van Horn, Ph.D., alumnae Letizia Branz and Jennifer Borges and doctoral students Brian Agard, Christopher Belser and Nicole Bronson all presented research.