I had the pleasure of traveling to Turkey in January 2019 as the STEM Expert for an American Embassy Grant Program to provide a five-day Train the Trainer STEM Education Institute to middle school teachers. ORAV  the hiring agency obtained a grant from an American Embassy Grants Program to provide a two + year project to provide sustainable STEM education to teachers and students throughout Turkey. The project was kicked off in January of 2019 when I provided an intensive five-day STEM Institute for 40 + lead trainers and administrators. During the five-day Train, the Trainer STEM Institute participants were introduced to best practices in STEM education which included inquiry-based teaching practices, developing and delivering investigative-based STEM lessons and learning experiences, 21st-century learning skills, engineering design process, journaling and connecting STEM across the disciplines. These lead trainers will provide STEM training and mentor over 250 teachers throughout Turkey over a five-month period. The 250 teachers trained will incorporate STEM learning experiences within their classrooms reaching thousands of students. I am truly grateful to have been selected to provide the foundational STEM training to the leader trainers of this project. These educators and administrators are extremely dedicated and motivated and have embraced the foundational principles of best practices in STEM education. I look forward to seeing the long-term benefits of this project on both the teachers and children of Turkey.

The following video provides a sampling of the STEM learning experiences and discussions that took place during the five-day Train the Trainer STEM Institute in 2019.