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 91�ȱ��� Stories      May 1, 2025

By Cam Adams

An ice storm shifted the first Western North Carolina Elementary STEM Community of Practice meeting to Zoom last minute, but Patricia Bricker’s project didn’t freeze up.

The January 2024 meeting was lively with science and STEM educators across the region collaborating and sharing ideas. That’s what Bricker, a distinguished professor inside the School of Teaching and Learning at Western Carolina University, set out to do when she created this group. 

“One of the coolest things that I think has come out of this work are the connections that people are making,” Bricker said. “All kinds of things have come from people having the opportunity to know other people and network and collaborate.” 

The Western North Carolina Elementary STEM Community of Practice is a 91�ȱ��� initiative aimed at connecting elementary science and STEM educators in the area. Through the program’s meetings, teachers have been able to partner and bounce ideas off each other.

So far in the group’s young history, it has accomplished quite a lot.

During the community’s first few meetings, Bricker and the coalition of teachers worked on figuring out what resources they could be using with new state science standards, deepening classroom practices and creating space for science and STEM education in elementary classrooms.

For this academic year, teachers have attended monthly virtual one-hour sessions to give them an opportunity to share, discuss and learn from elementary science and STEM projects happening in Western North Carolina.

“It's hard sometimes to find other people who are wanting to dig into science at the elementary level,” Bricker said.

“There's a lot of attention, understandably, to literacy, especially reading and math, and because of the way systems are set up, it sometimes can be hard to find time in classrooms to give the attention needed to science and STEM.”

That work is important, especially in Western North Carolina, as resources aren’t as plentiful as other parts of the state, according to Bricker.

“I think for us collectively to get where we need to go, these opportunities to collaborate are extremely important. It's hard to do on your own, especially when the metrics that are used to measure success in elementary schools are often focused on other subjects,” Bricker said.

“It's hard to allocate the time and resources in the school system, and that's where advocacy comes in, so unless there's some collective energy, it's very hard to do on your own. Collaboration is essential.”

But for Bricker, the goal is much more than just teachers collaborating.

“Ideally, down the road, students in the elementary classrooms will have engaging experiences related to science and STEM, and in the process of engaging in those, will learn the interdisciplinary content they need to,” she said.

“Even bigger picture, it's about building a STEM workforce on one hand, and then on the other hand, it's about building a scientifically literate population.”

The Western North Carolina Elementary STEM Community of Practice will look to continue in accomplishing its mission on June 13, holding a professional development day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee. 

Those interested can register at by May 29. Registration is limited to 80 people.

People can stay up to date on the group’s work at .