Mission Statement

STEM-Press seeks to encourage and support teachers as they facilitate hands-on learning in their classrooms. STEM-Press’ goal is to provide articles, lesson plans, books, and stories from the trenches to inspire and assist the teaching of STEM/STEAM. This, in turn, will empower students to persevere, fail forward, and become innovators and problem solvers.  In other words, this will prepare students for the unknown careers of the 21st century.

About

STEM-Press was started by Maridee Stanley, who is passionate about empowering students through hands-on STEAM learning.  Maridee grew up in a family that loved all things STEM long before that became fashionable. Electronics were soldered on the playroom table. Rockets were built and blasted off. Reptiles slithered here and there. Arthropods of all types were collected and dissected. Various injured wildlife recuperated in and around the house, including the owl on its perch above the TV, the opossum in the closet, and the skunk in the backyard. To cool off in summer, Maridee would wrap the pet 6-foot-4 South American boa constrictor around her body. Life was an adventure in nature.

The family watched in dismay as their rolling rural setting morphed into a city, leaving their property an island of wildness surrounded by a sea of suburbia. This upbringing turned Maridee into a lover of science and the environment.

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, then received her Juris Doctor, and practiced law until the family business of teaching beckoned. At an age when most people retire, Maridee obtained a multiple-subject teaching credential and a Master’s degree in STEM Education. In addition to her teaching job, she ran after-school STEM clubs in science, engineering, coding, and robotics, coached many science fair winners, wrote science musicals, and produced popular STEAM Nights.