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Jay W. Staker
Associate Director for Education
Program Director |
Iowa State University ISU Extension 3630 Extension & 4-H Youth Building Ames, IA 50011-3630 jstaker@iastate.edu |
Jay W. Staker, is in the job of his dreams: associate director of the Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) and director of Extension-Science, Engineering and Technology (E-SET). Formerly a high school science teacher and department chair at Ballard Community School in Huxley, Staker also taught in the summers at Iowa State University's talented and gifted science program for youngsters and was a master teacher of biotechnology.
Most important, he believes that the ISGC is "filling a huge need better than anyone else." That is because many teachers, particularly at the elementary-school level, come into the classroom with little preparation in science education. Once there, they may not get the support they need in terms of inservice, funding for educational materials, or technical assistance.
This is where the ISGC and E-SET come in. They provide workshops at area education agencies, inservice at schools, and curriculum kits to classroom teachers. Through its Educator Incentive Program, the Consortium also encourages teachers to get training on their own.
Providing these services is an ongoing emphasis of the program, with additional curriculum and kits being added as new needs or technologies, such as GPS and GIS, emerge. For example, E-SET has an educational kit and curriculum to support learning related to spatial thinking.
Another emphasis is connecting Iowa educators with NASA and its resources. The NASA Explorer School program, completing its first year, is an area that the ISGC Precollege program is involved with. The ISGC works with schools that want to become a NASA Explorer School and provides educational support for those schools that are selected.
Staker holds a B.S. degree from Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, where he majored in biology, and a master's of education from Iowa State University.