The National Defense Education Program's Virginia Demonstration Project (VDP) is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach program for middle school students. By increasing students' interest in STEM content, the VDP inspires students to become the next generation of scientists and engineers.
The VDP's objectives are met by teaming scientists and engineers from Naval warfare centers with teacher from schools near base facilities. School division partners for FY 2010-2011 included: Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Portsmouth, Accomack, Fredericksburg, Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
In order to ensure both the effectiveness of teams as well as provide program fidelity, a combination of direct professional development training from The College of William and Mary, and for the more advanced programs, master teacher training from school divisions, is provided to scientists and engineers (S&Es), and cooperating teachers. The teacher and S&E then collaborate on the delivery of a high energy curriculum (R2: Relevant Robotics) developed to leverage the efficacy of research-based educational techniques, developed around a Five Strands of STEM Instruction model. The strands of an effective STEM Education are composed of five content and five instructional strands, The VDP combines these strands to provide a best practice approach to STEM education into the K-12 setting. Instructional strands include: Inquiry based instruction, co-teaching, carefully-timed explicit instruction, cooperative learning, and thematic or "Big Idea" classroom framework. Each strand of effective STEM instruction is part of a constant balance to maintain an optimal learning environment or diverse classroom. The content strands consist of mathematics, science, technology, engineering and careers. The presence of the S&E in the classroom serves not only as a career connection and positive role model for students, but as a knowledge resource of the teacher, The S&E makes the previously abstract concept of a career in science or engineering tangible, as well as presenting a career in science or engineering in a positive fashion.
In addition to the classroom program, the VDP coordinates and evaluate summer academies, and provides career resources to parents and secondary school counselors. The VDP makes STEM Explore magazines and STEM career poster sets available to school personnel. work force development organizations, community outreach programs, and education conference attendees. The STEM Education Alliance staff provides STEM career outreach through conference presentations, membership in professional organizations, and an integrated social network service, including a resource-rich website, Face book, and Twitter presence. During FY10-11 the STEM Education Alliance represented the efforts of the National Defense Education Program at 57 meetings and conferences.
2010-2011 Classroom Evaluation Highlights
- After participation in the class portion of the VDP, students indicated that they were more likely to pursue a career in science, engineering, or math than they were prior to the VDP.
- African-American, Other Race, and Female subgroups exhibited larger gains in measures indicating their likelihood to pursue a career in science, engineering or math than either the total analysis sample or other subgroups.
2011 Dahlgren Summer Academy Evaluation Highlights
- Students who participated in the Dahlgren Summer Academy indicated they were more likely to pursue a career in science, engineering, or math prior to participation in camp than the general population of students who participated in the VDP in-school program.
2011 Hampton Roads Summer Academy Evaluation Highlights
- Students who participated in the Hampton Roads Summer Academy were more likely to indicate that they would pursue a career in science or engineering.
- Hap tom Roads Summer Academy participants exhibited larger gains in measures indicating their likelihood to pursue a career in science or engineering than participants in the school year program or participants in the Dahlgren Summer Academy.
2011 Longitudinal Study Evaluation Highlights
- Students who participated in the VDP in middle school in 2005 were surveyed in the spring of their senior year in high school. These students indicated that they were more likely to pursue a career in science, engineering, or math than a comparison group of students who had not participated in the VDP.
For more information or questions regarding our 2010-2011 Annual Report and Evaluation, please contact stemeducation@wm.edu.
We are pleased to announce the availability of a new set of career posters that complement our 
STEM Education Alliance at The College of William and Mary has received a sole-source contract from the Department of Defense for a total of $2.5 million over three years. The first year of the contract is underway, funding science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach. “The alliance plays an important role in advocating STEM careers among today’s youth and preparing them to become tomorrow’s leading scientists and engineers,” said Virginia McLaughlin, dean of the School of Education. This new grant will allow STEM Education Alliance to expand its reach with a combination of face-to-face and distance training.
The STEM Education Alliance's first Educational Climate and Ethics workshop for 50 Scientist and Engineers (S&Es) from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard was a huge success. The two day training on September 28-29 included multiple real life scenarios designed to increase the S&Es awareness of potential ethical issues that exist in today's K-12 setting. Through discussion of ethical dilemmas, the S&Es learn key information necessary for safe and productive interaction with students. This will better prepare volunteers for successful in-school experiences through the upcoming school year.
The STEM Education Alliance, in cooperation with the National Defense Education Program (NDEP), provided a professional development training for SPAWAR in Charleston SC on August 8, 9 and 10. The training included two sessions: (1) Educational Climate and Ethics, and (2) Robotics and Advanced Robotics. The Educational climate and ethics training provided military and civilian personnel with an awareness of the ethical issues that exist in the K-12 environment. This training provided the information necessary for safe and productive interaction between military and school personnel with students in a classroom setting. The ethics training was accomplished through the use of real-life ethical dilemmas and a review of practical guidelines for safe school interactions. In addition, the training provided comparison between military and school climate. This comparison prepares scientists, engineers and recruiters for in-school experiences.
The National Defense Education Program (NDEP) in collaboration with 
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, 
STEM Education Alliance attended the Office of Naval Research's 
On this day, Portsmouth Middle School Students worked with four Scientists and Engineers from Combat Direction Systems Activity (CDSA)-Dam Neck through the Virginia Demonstration Project. Students used a LEGO robot to understand concepts related to velocity. By measuring the distance a robot traveled in a given time students were able to calculate the speed of the robot. Students also manipulated the "power" setting on the robot to identify how this affected the robot's speed. The Scientists and Engineers worked with the classroom teachers to guide the students through the Velocity challenge and to share information about how robots are used by the Navy.
A one-week summer academy was held on base at Quantico Middle/High School, June 13 – 17, 2011. Quantico's first STEM Summer Academy was a huge success with 42 Students in attendance that teamed up with 14 teachers and 16 scientists and engineers. The Students explored physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, robotics, mathematics and more. This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) initiative supports the DoDEA curriculum standards.
