Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

The 2019 California STEAM Symposium

The California Department of Education (CDE) encourages you to support STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) efforts throughout the state by participating in the California STEAM Symposium. The Seventh Annual California STEAM Symposium is a place to explore themes with colleagues from around the state and beyond. The Symposium is a collaborative effort with the CDE, the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, and the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

Join more than 3,000 STEAM educators on December 9–10, 2019, at the Anaheim Convention Center. Register, find the latest updates and keynote announcements, and download an event flyer at the STEAM Symposium website: www.steamcalifornia.org/.

The thematic strands for this year's symposium include:

• Share the Joy of Learning: STEAM Content Integration and Student Engagement. Ignite student passion and curiosity while empowering student choice and voice using STEAM.
• Celebrate the Art of Teaching: Recruiting, Sustaining, and Developing the STEAM Teaching Workforce. Strengthening the STEAM teaching workforce is critical.
• Build a Thriving STEAM Team: Stakeholders and Partnerships. Optimize learning environments in prekindergarten through grade twelve by building partnerships and community involvement to enhance learning experiences within the school day and beyond.
• Create and Innovate STEAM Systems for All: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Learn how to reinvent organizational systems to promote a lifelong learning process and continuously improve teaching and learning environments through inclusive organizational cultures.

The Symposium highlights the work of California’s leaders in classroom innovation from across the state and shares promising practices in the areas of STEAM to help students succeed. If you are interested in practical strategies, creative ideas, classroom resources, and networking opportunities, this event is for you. The Symposium will also offer students the opportunity to showcase their innovative class projects.

We want all students to have equal access to STEAM programs, and the California STEAM Symposium is an excellent effort to increase the number of districts that offer courses and internships. Please join us.

If you have questions regarding this event, please email the organizers at steamsymposium@cdefoundation.org.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction