The Critical Role of Faculty in STEM Outreach
We aim for our K-12 STEM outreach programs to be mutually beneficial. In addition to sharing your enthusiasm for your field with future dukes and other students in our region, we want your participation to support your professional interests and goals.
K-12 STEM outreach has the greatest impact when approached as a true collaboration between STEM and Education faculty. Having a diverse group of STEM faculty allows us to represent the many disciplines of STEM and model the interdisciplinary approaches that are essential for using STEM to solve real-world problems. In addition, our Education faculty play an important role in informing our engagement strategies, inclusive practices, and designing experiences that are grade-level appropriate.
Ways to be Involved
Design experiences for our STEM field trip program
We are always looking for new ideas to enhance our STEM field trip program. Faculty are encouraged to work with us to design a 2-hour experience that is modeled after their research or other areas of interest in their discipline. These experiences are to incorporate authentic STEM practices and ways of thinking and provide opportunity to draw connections to current real-world problems. Depending on timing and resource availability, faculty may have the opportunity to apply for a STEM Center mini-grant for up to $2,500 which supports their efforts to develop a new experience that can be offered to our middle and/or high school guests the following semester. Contact Kerry Cresawn (cresawko@jmu.edu) for more information.
Bring us new ideas from your discipline
We also encourage faculty to bring us new ideas for engaging K-12 students in STEM. Events that have developed from this model include the JMU Brain Bee and Game Jam, a coding competition. These can be modeled after existing programs or brand new ideas. Is there a "National Day of [your area of research]" that you would like to participate in through outreach or an event you heard about at a different institution? If so, the STEM Center would be happy to work with you to provide all logistical support and funding while you get to drive the creative and intellectual aspects of the program design and implementation. Contact Kerry Cresawn to begin sharing ideas (cresawko@jmu.edu).
