Area educators are invited to the University of West Alabama’s annual STEM conference on Oct. 5 at Bell Conference Center in Livingston. Sponsored by the Julia S. Tutwiler College of Education, the free conference promotes innovative ideas through several means of learning.

The conference includes sessions in all areas of STEM education, including science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. The goal of STEM education is to create hands-on, interactive classrooms that encourage young children to develop and use scientific processes to explore and better understand their environments.

The morning session will feature speaker Cathy Valentino, who has served as author-in-residence for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company in Boston since 1999. She is the author, inventor, and program designer of the “Invention Convention.”

Valentino is the curriculum advisor and staff development trainer for SMILE (Science and Math Integrated Learning Experiences), a science and math outreach program for disadvantaged and minority students in grades four through twelve, at the University of Rhode Island.

The afternoon session will feature speaker Kathleen Horstmeyer, author of “A Teacher’s Journey of Love, Laughter, and Learning” and past president of the Society of Elementary Presidential Awardees.

Horstmeyer has served the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) as the chairperson of the preschool/elementary committee and as the elementary committee co-chair.

Participants may register online at http://uwaearlychildhoodconference.eventbrite.com or contact Esther Howard at ehoward@uwa.edu or 205-652-3428 for more information.