The STEM Education Alliance continues their community engagement and collaborative partnerships with local school districts.  Most recently our STEM specialists worked with teachers to deliver a Water Filtration program held at Larkspur Middle and Brandon Middle Schools in Virginia Beach.  The STEM Education Alliance’s team and sixth grade teachers guided more than 300 students through the busy SOL focused job of determining how best to purify water. Students learned to design and create water filters, clean contaminated water, and use turbidity sensors to test the effectiveness of their filters.

The Water Filtration STEM Programs were developed and presented by the STEM Education Alliance at the College of William and Mary and funded through the Operation PRIDE contracts.

“An Electrifying Day” STEM-a-Thons were held on October 23^rd and November 2^nd at White Oaks Elementary and Shelton Park Elementary respectively. Developed and presented by the STEM Education Alliance and funded through the Operation PRIDE grant, these student-centered days were a huge success.

Each STEM-a-Thon served the entire fifth grade at the hosting schools. Throughout the day, students traveled to different classrooms to participate in engaging activities that revolved around the theme of electricity. These hands-on, minds-on activities included:

• Discovering how to make series and parallel circuits using wires, bulbs and batteries.
• Identifying insulators and conductors.
• Building an electromagnet from a wire and nail.
• Creating with Snap Circuits kits.
• Gathering data about magnet strength.

Each participating child was given a circuit kit and an electromagnet kit. In addition, several large Snap Circuits kits were given to each elementary school for future use by their teachers.

Students were treated to “Lunch with an Engineer” at each STEM-a-Thon. During lunch, local engineers spoke with the students about their field as well as other STEM career possibilities and allowed students to participate in a unique Q&A opportunity.

On October 17, 2015 the STEM Education Alliance’s Assistant Director, Dr. Jake Joseph, conducted a Makerspace Exploration event at the W&M School of Education in Williamsburg, Virginia.  This was a free program open to anyone who wished to learn about maker spaces, soldering, and the ideas behind the maker movement.  Five participants from Spotsylvania, DoDEA schools, William & Mary School of Education and VIMS attended this event.

Participants learned the basics of maker spaces, including what a maker space is, how to equip a makerspace, and how to integrate a makerspace within standards based curriculum.  In addition, Dr. Joseph taught a beginners soldering course.  They attendees learned how to solder by assembling an electronics project.  Finally, participants discussed the science behind soldering, and how soldering can be related to science standards framework.

The next Makerspace Exploration program is scheduled to take place in January 2016.  Date, time and location are still to be determined.  If you would like to be contacted when more details become available, please email STEMeducation@wm.edu.

The National Defense Education Program (NDEP) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), in collaboration with the STEM Education Alliance, teamed up to hold the Seventh Annual STEM Summer Academy on June 22-26, 2015.  The Academy invited 96 middle school students from four nearby school divisions: King George, Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, and the Department of Defense School at Dahlgren.  The STEM Academy is designed to develop teamwork; problem solving skills and increased knowledge in math, science and engineering; as well as increase career awareness in STEM related fields.  Each student team was partnered with a teacher and a scientist or engineer from the Naval Surface Warfare Center.  Together they competed in a tower build challenge, water rocket challenge, life science activity, logistics activity, STEM career connections activities, and ten Navy-focused robotic mission challenges.

Beginning in 2013, the Dahlgren STEM Summer Academy relocated to King George Middle School.  By relocating the Academy, it has allowed for the students’ parents to attend Parent Day.   Parent Day was held on June 24^th and it was a great success!  Parents participated in a Career Awareness presentation and received materials on future STEM opportunities provided by each school division, STEM Education Alliance, and The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division.

A one-week STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) summer academy was held on base at Quantico Middle/High School on June 15-19, 2015. The Fifth Annual STEM Summer Academy, which supports the DoDEA curriculum standards, was a huge success. Fifty students teamed up with 21 teachers and 18 scientists and engineers. This year’s activities were slightly different from the past four years to give the students who previously attended the academy more variety. The activities included the SeaPerch Challenge, in which students built their own Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and used them to complete multiple underwater robotic challenges. The students also participated in numerous activities involving water properties and filtration, a card tower activity, and two different buoyancy activities. Through hands-on challenges, students explored physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, robotics, and mathematics in an engaging, high-energy environment.

The 2015 SeaPerch Regional Competition was held on April 25^th at the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg Campus, Natatorium.  The competition received an exceptional kickoff from Captain Brian Durant, NSWCDD Commander.  Forty-three teams from ten schools came to complete four different challenges and a poster presentation.  These schools included one high school, four middle schools and five elementary schools.  Many teams came with a SeaPerch frame displaying creative modifications and alterations.  It was evident that a great deal of work went into this year’s SeaPerch models making it difficult to choose only two teams to proceed to the national level.

The finalists are:
First Place: Team #12, SSN Aquia Rover team from Margaret Brent Elementary
Second Place: Team #32, The Seaborgs team from DoDEA School
Third Place (as an alternate): The Sea Dolphins team from Washington Math Science Technology PCHS

These teams will be eligible to attend the 2015 SeaPerch National Challenge, which will be held on May 29-30 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

 This post is William & Mary's summary of the day's events.

One-day STEM-a-THONs were held on April 18^th and 25^th at White Oaks Elementary School and Green Run Collegiate respectively. These fun-filled days were developed and run by the STEM Education Alliance and coordinated by Operation PRIDE. Each STEM-a-THON hosted approximately 25 military-connected students. At the end of both days, parents were treated to a discussion on the importance of STEM and helping children choose a career.

 The day at White Oaks Elementary was filled with engaging activities that revolved around electricity. These hands-on, minds-on activities included:

• Discovering, through guided inquiry and exploration, how to make series and parallel circuits using wires, bulbs and batteries.
• Identifying insulators and conductors.
• Creating an electromagnet from a wire and nail.
• Building a working motor.
• Experimenting with Snap Circuits kits.

Each participating child took home a Snap Circuits Jr. kit. In addition, several large Snap Circuits kits were given to White Oaks Elementary School for future use by their teachers.

At Green Run Collegiate, ninth and tenth graders spent the day making Geiger counters, an instrument used for measuring ionizing radiation. Through the process of making Geiger counters, students learned how to solder metals together with a soldering iron. A highlight of the day was getting to experiment with Google Glass, which is a pair of glasses that displays a small monitor and allows you to interact with it as you would a smartphone. All of the soldering irons, as well as other materials, were left with Green Run Collegiate teachers.