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The narrative describes a spaghetti-and-gumdrop tower challenge designed to test teamwork and engineering reasoning while supporting math, science, and language arts. It emphasizes the importance of staff professional development, addressing the fear of leading STEM activities through modeling, structured inquiry, and feedback strategies. 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In the center of each group is a seemingly random assortment of materials, including uncooked spaghetti, spiced gumdrops, and a small cardboard square. After a brief introduction to the activity, a staff member posts the challenge on the wall: Using only these materials and working together as a team, each group must build the tallest possible tower that can support a 20-ounce water bottle independently for 10 seconds.  \nTeams look at the materials, discuss the challenge, and brainstorm possible solutions. Then they begin to manipulate the materials. Through trial and error, they refinea solution until they feel confident it is ready to be tested. I am describing a typical scene in the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) I used to direct. The team members are the fourth-graders my program served—but they could equally well be the staff leader  \nand his counterparts, whose professional development included participating in this same activity before they led it.  \nAs a program director, I worked to create a “culture of STEM” for both program participants and staff. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) served as the central topic across all of our enrichment clubs. Almost every activity involved some aspect of STEM; everything we did was hands-on and inquiry based. We equipped staff to lead STEM activities using the same hands-on, inquiry-based approach. Most of the time, we integrated STEM with other content areas such as language arts. We thus had taken the first steps toward making STEM learning an intentional component of our program. The next step we might have taken was to use theme-based learning across the entire program.  \nMICHAEL MACEWAN is director of 21st CCLC and STEM Initiatives at NJSACC: The Statewide Network for New Jersey’s Afterschool Communities. He participated in the Afterschool Matters Practitioner Research Fellowship in Philadelphia in 2008–2009 and has served as a fellowship facilitator since 2010. He has more than 12 years of experience implementing STEM in informal settings. His goal is to increase the number of high-quality STEM opportunities to which youth have access.  \nWhat Children Experienced  \nThe community our program served was an urban New Jersey school district whose population was more than 90  \nthe math to support the activity, drawing and sketches torecreate each activity, and graphs of their data.  \npercent Latino. We served only fourth-graders in all five of How Staff Were Equipped  \nthe district’s elementary schools. As a direct result of the Professional development is the key to developing staff’s hard work and commitment, program participants high-quality STEM programming. The biggest obstacle to outscored their non-program peers on standardized tests implementing STEM learning is not cost, but staff mem  \nin math, language arts, and science. bers’ fear of leading STEM activities.  \nClear, definitive results showed Even though my staff and I Staffers do not need a STEM backthat ourOurmetyohuondgspwerearticiworkpantsinkgn.ew highlighted that the kids grousurentdo toSlTeaEdMStThEM acroughtivitiesprofes; esixopnoa-l they were in a STEM-focused af- were learning, we didn’t tell development will lead to comfort, terschool program. In retrospect, I them what they were making concepts less foreign and don’t know that they understood learning or how it fit into a teaching the staff to reason through wsulehbaratsncitrinhbg—dt mtohietdanheintgi.dAteatheothfed“eduitscimguatieison,eIdal halavrgere drrehe. Wcoencounectlin prthmoeebkntleimdsfosrtwOhillSeTsPamroshofeesuwsldioaynastrliwdkeeevahoelobppale--value of program activities. I thought for them, telling them that ance between teaching content and that participants would have fun this fun activity in which they pedagogy skills while modeling best whiletranslatleeatrnoingothesrkillsa","cbCaiiRSFzjzIw9n","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiRSFzjzIw9n","pdf",131563,"English","# What Children Experienced\n## How Staff Were Equipped\n# Activity Design and Intended Learning\n## Connecting Content and Pedagogy","[{\"question\":\"What STEM activity is used to illustrate intentional learning?\",\"answer\":\"Teams use materials such as uncooked spaghetti and gumdrops to build the tallest tower that can independently support a 20-ounce water bottle for 10 seconds.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author emphasize staff professional development?\",\"answer\":\"The main obstacle is staff fear of leading STEM activities; development increases comfort by modeling best practices and helping staff anticipate problems.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the program connect STEM to other subjects?\",\"answer\":\"STEM is integrated across enrichment clubs, often combining hands-on STEM tasks with language arts and reinforcing learning through inquiry and discussion.\"}]","VOICES FROM THE FIELD - Getting Intentional About STEM Learning | PDF",1792069560]