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Three area teachers join 95 teachers for the 2026 Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program, which places educators inside Iowa businesses to bring real-world experience back to the classrooms. Since its launch in 2009, the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council at the Iowa Department of Education has facilitated more than 1,000 teacher externships in a variety of industries throughout the state.
Angie Dudley, a first-grade teacher at GMG Elementary School in Green Mountain, is working at Marshall County Conservation, assisting the naturalist. She collaborates and helps with all the summer camps for grades preschool to sixth. In between camps, Dudley manages the Conservation Board’s social media content which included the annual Lego Minifigure Scavenger Hunt covering more than 31 parks. She also creates reference documents for the Naturalist to collaborate with school districts and teachers in the future. Dudley spoke at the July Nature Story about bats and is developing and teaching a program on bees.
Marty King, a science teacher at East Marshall High School in Le Grand, is also spending her externship at Marshall County Conservation. She is working on a new grant that tracks bats by their calls. She then uploads that data to a national data base. It is the first study of its type in the state and will be used for things like future infrastructure and wind farms. She has been able to flex her spreadsheet muscles, along with being exposed to the importance of local conservation.
Andrea Tollefson, a computer science teacher at West Marshall High School in State Center, is working at Lennox. She is part of the Lennox Industries Quality Control as a quality contractor. She is making significant contributions to the team by building report dashboards in Power BI using data collected through Microsoft Forms. This position requires her to use technology and team collaboration daily, as well as learn about the creation of parts and assembly of Lennox heating and cooling units.
The Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program creates meaningful, two-way partnerships between educators and local workplaces. These collaborations create long-term school-business relationships that strengthen the local talent pipeline and help students understand the opportunities available in their own communities.
This year, the program is supported through state-appropriated funds and investments by Iowa business, industry and community partners. This year's contributions from workplace hosts total $150,680 in addition to the STEM Council's investment.