OUR STORY

OUR STORY: EARLY BEGINNINGS
TO FUTURE FORWARD REGIONAL IMPACT

LEARNING AND GROWTH

HOW WE STARTED: Coming together and finding tech

Around 2010, building upon the success of a collaborative endeavor in the region called WEDIG (Westmoreland Economic Development Initiative for Growth), Penn State New Kensington convened leaders from school districts in its service area who were eager to work together to find ways to strengthen STEM learning for their students, to support teachers grappling with engaging in STEM subjects, and to create a regional reputation for STEM strong graduates ready to enter the area’s thriving workforce.

After a couple of years of trial projects, a few promising ideas emerged over early morning breakfasts at a local Kings restaurant. With encouragement from The Grable Foundation, education leaders from the Allegheny-Kiski Valley connected with a team from Carnegie Mellon University’s Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment Lab (CREATE Lab) who were seeking school district partners for further research and development of their their educational technology projects. In August 2014, with funding from The Grable Foundation, the Alle-Kiski Best Practices Collaborative soon to be known as ABC CREATE was born.

THE EARLY YEARS

ABC CREATE’s first steps were to help districts to develop a shared understanding of ABC CREATE’s program objectives, to build relationships across districts, and to identify the educators who would become early adopters of STEM classroom integrations. At the first ABC CREATE STEAM Showcase in 2015, educators explored a range of educational technologies and project ideas, ultimately selecting the Arts & Bots projects with Hummingbirds from BirdBrain Technologies, GigaPan, and Speck air quality monitors as the first technologies to introduce to STEM “teacher advocates” as the first rounds of educators to experience ABC CREATE’s professional development were dubbed.

Over the next few years patterns developed of providing professional development throughout the school year to include workshops and training for STEM-based technologies and related pedagogical approaches, to create space each fall for cross-district work sessions to solidify and reinforce districts’ STEM work, and to provide a STEM Showcase in the spring to share best practices - highlighting the ideas, projects, and processes that educators successfully implemented during the school year.

LEARNING AND GROWTH

The ABC CREATE Leadership Team tightened the collaborative’s focus to the mission of “connecting teachers across school districts with professional learning communities, tools, and best practices to develop competent and technologically fluent students” centered around the core values of equitable access, collaboration, technological fluency, and innovative teaching and learning in all its initiatives. ABC CREATE educators expanded their understanding from S.T.E.M. which focused more on siloed and specific disciplines to STEAM that honors the development of a range of technical, creative, and humanistic skill sets necessary for thriving in rapidly changing environments. Educators become familiar with and embraced approaches to learning that emphasize hands-on, relevant, joyful learning with opportunities for learner agency and for integrating essential, technical, and future-ready skills into existing content.

ABC CREATE also recognized the value of a collective impact model as well as the role it can play in revitalizating not only K-12 education, but also in breaking down barriers and redesigning systems to better support opportunities for learners within a community in the midst of revitalization. Over the next few years, ABC CREATE’s reach grew from 36 educators at the first Fall Convening in 2015 to a community of over 750 - with educators from K-12, higher education, Intermediate Units, out-of-school time (OST) and stakeholders from business, industry, and government.

ABC CREATE + Penn State New Kensington’s NextovationTM

While ABC CREATE gained traction, Penn State New Kensington continued to convene collaborative partners and to build a more expansive ecosystem to amplify the collective impact. Led by Penn State New Kensington, NextovationTM is an initiative focused on transforming a rust belt community through innovation, entrepreneurship and preparation for the digital age. NextovationTM efforts are centered around the city of New Kensington and designed to serve as a pilot testing ground upon which revitalization models may be built.

Phases of Nextovation thus far include various revitalization efforts supported by the Foundation of Westmoreland County and the City of New Kensington.The most well-known is the Corridor of Innovation, a five-block stretch of Fifth Avenue, which has been transforming since summer 2017. A facade improvement mini-grant program for business owners and organizations helped revamp and upgrade 18 buildings. Artist murals and several colorful bike racks and benches can also be found along Fifth Avenue.

A brand new corner parklet was an added feature thanks to the work of volunteers from the campus, Arconic and the City of New Kensington. The Corner LaunchBox and Co-working Space garnered support from a range of funders and collaborators bringing in entrepreneurialism, idea generation, and creativity; opportunity accelerators, free tax and legal advice, deeper access to resources - spawning ideas and collaborations.

In 2019, ABC CREATE was awarded a PAsmart Advancing Grant through the Pennsylvania Governor's office to further its work and alignment with the campus' promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship and essential skill sets in the Alle-Kiski Valley region. In addition to ABC CREATE’s ongoing initiatives, the PAsmart Advancing Grant allowed ABC CREATE to integrate future-ready skills in K-12 STEAM education through the development of Learning Pathways, to prepare a cohort of middle school teachers to teach computer science through code.org’s CS Discoveries, to equity ….

The Digital Foundry lands on the scene in 2022 existing to help improve lives and strengthen businesses in the region through access to digital technologies and future-ready skills. As an initiative of Penn State New Kensington and the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland County, the mission of the Digital Foundry is to partner with manufacturing companies, educators and the workforce to accelerate economic growth and competitiveness using digital technologies and data-driven decision making.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

ABC CREATE’s end-of-year report for 2021, Revitalization and Renewal: Impact and Opportunities for Future-Ready Learning and Teacher Collaboration A Report for the Collaborative, February 24, 2022 captures the strength and potential of ABC CREATE’s ongoing focus on working collaboratively as part of an ecosystem designed to revitalize rust-belt communities for thriving in today’s ever-changing environments.

“Like interlocking puzzle pieces, thriving communities require at least four conditions: a healthy economy, a talented workforce, an engaged citizenry, and a high-quality education system. One piece alone does not make the picture come into focus. Rather, the pieces must be shaped in such a way that they fit together, one reaching out to fill the open space of another such that they lock together. As a K-12 incubator of curriculum and project design focused on STEAM and future-ready learning in the Alle-Kiski region, it could be said that ABC CREATE is most focused on supporting teachers and students within the education “puzzle piece.”

Looking to the future, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that ABC CREATE can in fact accelerate revitalization in the region by helping schools and educators better understand and prepare students to effectively participate in and contribute to the health of the region’s future economy, workforce, and citizenry. There is great opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the Alle-Kiski Valley’s revitalization and renewal, both within and beyond the region’s schools.”

FULL REPORT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY