STEM Education:

Academic

Enrichment

via STEM:

 School-wide 

STEM:

Click on a button below

to view a

slideshow of the event.

Welcome to Mrs. Sommers' Website!

     Mrs. Sommers pursued her teaching certification at Franklin Pierce University, has been working at Greenland Central School since 2005, and is passionate about STEM education. Motivated by a strong desire to foster creativity, innovation, and problem-solving abilities in her students, she's attended a number of professional development opportunities in areas such as Robotics, STEM, and Computer Science. She recently completed a graduate program at Tufts University in Engineering Education and feels the elementary school years are the ideal time for igniting students' interests in STEM.   

     Mrs. Sommers' believes students learn best when they're actively engaged and constructing their own learning. Her classroom approach with STEM is to encourage students to apply previously learned Math and Science concepts to engineering design challenges, analyze data to better inform design decisions, and work collaboratively to solve problems.  She's comfortable using a variety of digital tools and especially enjoys helping teachers and students learn, create, and reflect with technology.  She's developed plans for a Makerspace to encourage students to experiment and tinker utilizing a "Station Rotation" approach.  See sample ideas and activities below in the "makerspace" section.

     In addition to providing whole-class enrichment via STEM education to grades 1 - 7 students, Mrs. Sommers teaches high-ability Math and Reading students in grades 3 - 6.

  Math Enrichment includes project- and problem-based learning activities where students learn to code and then apply this knowledge to solve a design challenge.  For example, students create their own tablet game using all of the programming skills they’ve learned, such as loops, functions, variables, and conditionals.  Students will then test and explain their digital creations. Robotics  projects are also utilized that extend students' learning of concepts learned in their Math classes.

Shown below are some of the annual STEM Events Mrs. Sommers creates for our students, families, and the greater Greenland Central School community:

Tech Integration

Tools:

Click on images

for the Station directions.

      Book     

   Creator

(for iPad and Chrome!)

Mrs. Sommers' favorite app

by far for

teachers

   and students!  

​

Click on the

icon above

to go to the

Book Creator website. 

Click on image

at left to view 

"50 Ways".

​

Sample screenshots from the book are shown

below.

Click on the names of the applications below (in blue) to see some examples of our collaborative efforts to integrate technology.

Additional Apps

and Tools:

After-School

STEM:

Click on arrow in the photo

at right to view slideshow. 

• FIRST Lego League

• Robotics

• Engineering Adventures

• Engineering Everywhere

• Computer Science

     Academic

Competitions:

GEOGRAPHY BEE

Each year, Mrs. Sommers organizes academic events and competitions such as:

Geography Bee:  Open to students in grades 5 - 8.  The school-wide winner is eligible to take the test for    

     advancing to the State competition.

Invention Convention:  Grades 1 - 8 students are invited to participate.  Grade-level  winners attend

     the State Invention Convention.

Spelling Bee:  Open to students in grades 4 - 8.  School winner advances to the State competition.

FIRST Lego League:  Up to ten students in grades 4 - 8 have participated in this activity.  Regional  

     competitions are at UNH and our teams have advanced to State-level events.

INVENTION CONVENTION

SPELLING BEE

FIRST LEGO LEAGUE