Director - Iowa Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education (IRCEDE);
Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction
Education: Ed.D University of Northern Iowa, Curriculum & Instruction with Emphasis on Early STEM, M.A.E. University of Northern Iowa, Literacy Education, B.A. Northwestern College, Social Sciences
Research Interests: Early Literacy, Early STEM
An Iowa native, Beth Dykstra VanMeeteren, Ed.D. began her career as an early childhood teacher in a rural Iowa school earning an M.A.E. in literacy education along the way. Her small K-12 school district served as a pilot site for the Iowa Writing Project’s research into Writing Across the Curriculum. Writing Workshop became a daily and intellectually stimulating experience for VanMeeteren and her first graders throughout her 28 years in classroom teaching. The quest for perpetual growth in pedagogy developed in the Iowa Writing Project led to five elementary teachers joining a cohort of UNI’s M.A.E. in Literacy Education. VanMeeteren and her colleagues earned their graduate degrees in 1992.
In 2001, VanMeeteren was recruited to be the First Grade Lead Instructor at the Freeburg Early Childhood Program in East Waterloo, an experimental early childhood research school for the University of Northern Iowa. The school was an extension of the Iowa Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education (IRCEDE) directed by seminal early childhood researcher, Dr. Rheta DeVries. The IRCEDE was established by the State of Iowa’s legislators in 1988 (Senate file 2295: 262.71) to transform and promote best practices in early education (birth-8 years) that address local, state and national needs through advocacy, research, and professional and curriculum development, dissemination and outreach. Under Dr. DeVries' leadership as IRCEDE Director, VanMeeteren designed and piloted first and second grade STEM experiences that included Ramps & Pathways, an integrative approach to force and motion with young children that was ultimately funded by the National Science Foundation. In this role, VanMeeteren noted the reciprocal relationship between children’s development of STEM practices and literacy practices. Children’s STEM experiences frequently served as child-selected topics in Writing Workshop. Children’s documentation and their writing of narrative non-fiction published in little books for the classroom library were a springboard into literacy learning for many young children. More intriguing, she noticed children’s approaches to problem solving in STEM experiences transferred to their approaches to problem solving in reading.
VanMeeteren went on to develop other integrative STEM and literacy experiences and professional learning for the IRCEDE. Upon earning a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on engineering in early STEM, she became the 5th Director of the IRCEDE. In addition to this role, she serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction for the University of Northern Iowa teaching early literacy, early science, and early curriculum courses. VanMeeteren and her team were selected by the Iowa STEM Advisory Council to deliver professional learning and materials on two early STEM experiences, Ramps & Pathways and Light & Shadow, to over 800 educators across Iowa. They are preparing to serve more Iowa educators in 2022 with WaterWorks. Partial replications of this professional learning on integrative STEM with classroom materials are occurring in Alabama and Tennessee. The IRCEDE hosts monthly ZOOM meetings with educators across the country who belong to the Early Childhood Science Interest Forum, a community in the National Association for the Education of Young Children. VanMeeteren delivers keynotes and professional learning on integrative early STEM at the state, national, and international levels. She serves as a national advisor in the development and implementation of FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Discover for children ages 4-6. VanMeeteren served on panels for the Education Commission of the States to write the policy statements Enhancing STEM in P3 Education and Teacher Training for Quality P-3 STEM Education. In addition to the daily operations of the IRCEDE, VanMeeteren and her team are currently writing a series of early STEM teacher guides for Teachers College Press.