Originally published on 5/11/22
On May 10th, Alvin ISD unveiled the ALVIN ISD STEM Bus, the district’s newest learning resource for teachers and students.
During the special ceremony, held in the Alvin ISD Board Room, Alvin ISD welcomed administrators, board members, sponsors, elected officials, community members, students, and more.
After Superintendent Carol Nelson thanked the crowd for coming to support the Stem Bus, Director of Family and Community Engagement, Ana Pasarella, gave brief remarks on the history of the STEM Bus project. She also introduced the group of students from Alvin High School, Shadow Creek High School, and Manvel High School, that were selected for the 2022-2023 STEM Bus Internship Program. These students will help facilitate the stations inside the bus this summer and throughout the year.
The STEM Bus, a project originally starting in 2019, is a STEM Lab on wheels which will provide hands-on learning activities across a variety of STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The STEM Bus will also provide teachers with cutting edge resources needed to provide an enhanced educational experience for their students.
STEM education often requires a lot of expensive equipment that schools cannot afford or maintain. Alvin ISD found a solution to overcome this obstacle by getting an old school bus gutted, stripped down and transformed into a mobile learning lab that will travel from campus to campus during the school year and to community places near our students’ homes in the summer.
A leadership team from the Alvin ISD Family and Community Engagement, Federal and Special Programs, and Transportation departments, spent countless hours facing numerous challenges and problem-solving opportunities during the process of making the STEM Bus a reality. An important partner to get this program started was the Alvin ISD Education Foundation, who donated the first $40,000 towards the retrofitting of the old school bus.
“The Alvin ISD Education Foundation is very excited about the launching of the Alvin ISD STEM Bus, and we were thrilled to be able to make the initial donation to get this project in motion. We continue to support this project by accepting donations that will allow the STEM Bus to grow and adapt. The goal is to make bigger projects come to life and have a greater impact,” expressed Sheila Olson, Executive Director of the Alvin ISD Education Foundation.
The project had to be put on hold early in 2020 due to the COVID Pandemic. However, these Alvin ISD departments continued working on developing the design and seeking sponsors to fund the project in the future. Although an uncertain future due to the challenges that the world and education were facing at the moment, the team never gave up the need of having a mobile STEM Program available once school resumed normal activities.
In March of 2021, the team met with architects from STANTEC Architecture who offered to design the interior of the STEM Bus. After several meetings with STANTEC Architecture, the vision came to life as a 40-foot, one of a kind classroom on wheels equipped to hold 15-20 students inside and has additional teaching space on the outside for 10 more students. The STEM Bus is equipped with modern, science lab cabinetry, a ceiling resembling a solar system made to scale, 50-inch smart television, 8 all-in-one computers, virtual reality equipment, robots, drones, a 3D Printer, tablets, solar panels, and a wide range of science and technology supplies to allow every Alvin ISD student the opportunity to have hands on learning experiences with the latest and greatest technology.
“Stantec Architecture is honored to partner with Alvin ISD to help design the STEM Bus. Our partnership with Alvin ISD spans over two decades of designing learning environments and the STEM Bus is certainly a learning environment like no other. The excitement from the Alvin ISD team was contagious as we explored different concepts in a three-dimensional model, which resulted in a great design that will benefit many students of different ages. It truly gives us great pride to be a part of something that will have an impact on many kids for years to come” said Mark Jackson, STANTEC Senior Associate.
T-Mobile jumped in to support this program at the end of 2020 and is equipping the STEM Bus with 5G internet connectivity and tablets for the students. Having access to 5G internet connectivity will be a great resource for this mobile program, especially when visiting those Alvin ISD communities where connectivity is hard to reach and therefore a barrier for students to connect to learning.
Phillips 66 and Ascend Performance Materials are Champion Level Sponsors. Together, these two organizations donated $40,000 which propelled the retrofitting phase of the STEM Bus, allowing the district to finish it before the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
A total of over $155,000 was raised with the support of numerous local and national organizations who support STEM Education and saw the importance of a program like this one for the future of our students.
Just like the well-known Alvin ISD Book Bus, the STEM Bus will be an extremely cool, eye-catching sight rolling from school-to-school. In addition to visiting each of the 19 elementary schools during the school year, the STEM Bus will be available at numerous community and district events as well as at special campus activities for student exploration. During the summer, the STEM Bus will visit multiple community locations near the students’ homes.
“Our district is excited for the opportunities that our students will have with the new Alvin ISD Stem Bus. Students will engage in the integration of science, technology, engineering, and math with activities designed by our curriculum department. The Alvin ISD Office of Family and Community Engagement has done an outstanding job with their vision and implementation for this project. Alvin ISD continues to look for ways to engage our students and community at the same time. This would not be possible without the support of so many partnerships and generous donations,” said Alvin ISD Superintendent, Carol Nelson.