Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub

We’re looking forward to growing and learning alongside you with these new professional development offerings.

Growing Minds: Creating a Growth Mindset Classroom

This session focuses on practical strategies for building classrooms where effort, perseverance, and learning from mistakes are part of the culture. Participants will explore how mindset impacts student confidence, motivation, and willingness to take academic risks. Through real classroom examples and simple, meaningful practices, teachers will learn ways to encourage productive struggle, foster resilience, and help students see challenges as opportunities for growth. The session also highlights the importance of teacher language, feedback, classroom routines, and modeling a growth mindset in everyday interactions. Teachers will leave with realistic, ready-to-use ideas that help create supportive learning environments where all students can grow and succeed.

We are offering this in both our July and August sessions. For registration information check our our www.umpquavalleysteam.com

S.T.E.A.M.-Powered Project-Based Learning for the Elementary Classroom

In this session, participants will learn how to design and facilitate Project-Based Learning (PBL) experiences in the elementary classroom. We will cover relevant terminology, including what PBL is and how it relates to S.T.E.A.M. and transdisciplinary learning, as well as the elements of PBL. We will also review how Oregon’s Transformative Social and Emotional Learning framework can be integrated into this type of learning experience. A framework for designing S.T.E.A.M.-powered PBL experiences will be shared, as well as tools for getting started. Attendees will leave the session with a planning template they can use in their classrooms and across different content areas. Please attend Part 2 - Workshop: Designing S.T.E.A.M.-Powered Project-Based Learning for the Elementary Classroom to have more focused time to work with regional colleagues and to design a PBL unit of your own!

This PD will be held in our August session.

Empowering educators through next-level PD! 💡

The Embedded Teacher Program from Space for Teachers gives educators a rare opportunity: guide students in designing a real microgravity experiment, then fly with it on a Zero G parabolic flight. Join Nick Krissie as he shares what it’s like to take a student built experiment into microgravity, how the program works, and practical, classroom ready ways to explore microgravity when you don't have a parabolic flight.

For more information and registration go to our website

Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub - Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub Engaging Students, Supporting Educators Services available to all educators in Douglas County, Oregon. Engaging Students, Supporting Educators Services available to all educators in Douglas County, Oregon. Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub The Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub provides services

Thrilled to bring these new growth opportunities to our amazing educators. 🚀

Using Multisensory Strategies to Engage Students in Coding
In addition to exploring the different platforms of coding, this session will engage the participants in multiple ways of getting students active in coding (beyond the normal sit, type and observe. Several new coding programs will be featured. Products available for checkout from the Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub will also be demonstrated.

For more information and registration see our website www.umpquavalleysteam.com

We’re looking forward to growing and learning alongside you with these new professional development offerings!

Counting Collections
This session is designed for pre-K through second grade teachers who want to strengthen young children’s number sense and early mathematical understanding through the use of counting collections. Participants will explore how counting collections can support children’s development of counting strategies, quantity relationships, and understanding of our base-ten number system. The seminar will highlight ways that thoughtfully chosen collections encourage students to reason about place value and build foundational ideas related to addition and subtraction. Teachers will examine how children’s counting behaviors reveal important insights about their mathematical thinking and understanding. Through videos, student work samples, and collaborative discussions, participants will consider instructional moves that promote flexibility, efficiency, and confidence with numbers. Teachers will also engage in planning experiences that help integrate counting collections into daily classroom routines and small-group instruction. The session emphasizes hands-on, student-centered learning experiences that nurture curiosity, mathematical reasoning, and joyful engagement with numbers.

For more information and registration go to our website at umpquavalleysteam.com

Don't miss out on this opportunity!

Making Middle School Math Engaging.

There will be three project-based learning sessions over three days. Attend one, two, or all three sessions. Today we are covering the 8th grade project.

Day three: 8th Grade Project is Amusement Park Architect: Let your imagination run wild!

More about the project:
The project is designed to run between 12 and 18 lessons, around 40 minutes per lesson. It centers around some of the most important 8th grade math standards, both in terms of OSAS as well as from listed priorities of high school math teachers (graphing linear functions). *Important: You do not have to be a math teacher to do this unit!. This training will be held in June.
For more information about this PD and the 6th and 7th grade projects go to our website Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub and find all our summer PDs under our ‘For Educator’ tab.

We are so excited to partner with educators and share these wonderful new learning and growth opportunities.

Thinking Beyond the Answer: Strategies for Promoting Student Thinking in the Classroom

This session explores practical strategies for creating classrooms where students do more than memorize information: they actively think, question, discuss, and problem-solve. Participants will examine ways to encourage deeper thinking through purposeful questioning, collaborative learning, productive struggle, discussion routines, and student-centered tasks. The session focuses on building a classroom culture where curiosity is valued, mistakes are seen as part of learning, and students feel confident sharing ideas and reasoning. Teachers will leave with realistic, ready-to-use strategies that can help increase engagement, critical thinking, and meaningful learning across grade levels and content areas.

This session will be offered in both our July and August Institutes.

The versatility of this Professional Development is great!

3D Printing for Content Learning

Hands On Workshop with Bambu Lab A1 Minis

This workshop introduces educators to using 3D printing as a way to support content learning across subjects. Participants will walk through the full process of creating an instructional model that can be used to teach a specific concept—such as a scientific structure, a mathematical idea, or a component from a technical system. After designing their object, attendees will prepare it for printing and begin the print on a Bambu Lab A1 Mini during the session. Because print times vary, some projects may finish after the workshop, but participants will gain practical experience with the complete workflow and leave with strategies for integrating printed models into lessons to deepen understanding and engagement.

This is in our July session.

Making Middle School Math Engaging

There will be three project-based learning sessions over three days. Attend one, two, or all three sessions. Today we are covering the 7th grade project.

Day two: 7th Grade Project is Mountain Guide: Can you help your clients climb the Seven Summits, and keep them alive in the process?

More about the project:
The project is designed to run between 12 and 18 lessons, around 40 minutes per lesson. It centers around some of the most important 7th grade math standards (rates, proportions, scale factor, taxes/discounts). In addition to math, the project incorporates subject matter from all core content areas, including non-fiction reading and the scaffolded creation of an informative essay. This training will be held in June.

For more information about this PD and the 6th and 8th grade projects go to our website Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub and find all our summer PDs under our ‘For Educator’ tab.

We're back.....

The Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub is excited to bring back our summer Professional Development (PD) for Douglas County Educators. We will be highlighting some of the different sessions over the next few weeks.

E-Textiles will bring creativity, technology, and hands-on learning together in this engaging introduction to e-textiles! E-textiles (electronic textiles) combine fabric, sewing, and simple circuitry, using tools like conductive thread and LEDs, to create interactive, light-up projects that merge art and engineering. Designed for educators teaching grades 3-12, this workshop offers flexible participation.

This workshop is being held in both our July and August offerings.

For more information about this PD and others check out website Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub and find all our summer PDs under our ‘For Educator’ tab.