It’s a groundbreaking year for Battle Ground Elementary School in Battle Ground, Indiana. For the first time, teachers across all grade levels will be using EiE. For many of them, EiE will be brand new, but they have experts in their midst: principal John Pearl and veteran fifth-grade science educator Diane Lehman have been championing EiE for 10 years. In the past decade, they’ve seen how EiE sets learners up for success in later grades, levels the playing field, and opens the doors for exciting real-world connections. Now, they’re ready to share everything they’ve learned with the educators in their school and across their district, so they can help even more learners discover their STEM identity.

This blog was originally posted on January 7, 2016.

We’re always interested to learn how districts adopt and implement the EiE curriculum. One challenge many districts face is simply finding the funds for curriculum materials, another is building consensus and enthusiasm among teachers.

Amphitheater Unified School District in Tucson is a great example of a district that’s seeing a highly successful EiE implementation despite serious budget constraints.

The June 2015 online issue of Educational Leadership explores the theme “ Improving Schools from Within.” The magazine invited educators to share stories of schools that changed for the better—and how they did it. 

Emily Hardee, a North Carolina STEM coordinator, tells the story of a Raleigh elementary school that transformed itself from one of the lowest performing schools in the district into a STEM school that’s a model for the state. We’re gratified to know that the Engineering is Elementary curriculum played a part in the change.

The EiE Team would like to thank you all for a wonderful 2016. We've loved hearing your inspiring engineering stories, and we can't wait to show you all of the exciting projects we've been working on this year. One of the highlights of our year was receiving Presenter's Choice and Viewer's Choice honors at the 2016 NSF STEM for All Video Showcase. We're proud of this video because it encapsulates so much of what we love about EiE.

When we develop EiE curricula, we hope that educators will be inspired to take engineering learning to the next level. Every year, we are blown away by the stories we hear about the creative and unexpected ways that educators implement and build upon our curricula. From creating dances based on simple machines to inspiring students to help kids in crisis, here are the stories of a small sample of the many superstar educators who exemplify the values of EiE.