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Outreach Themes

Engage. Recruit. Retain. Sustain.

Within the STEM constructs engage and recruit students, while training, retaining, and sustaining an education workforce. 

Teacher and GRAs demonstrate drones

Teachers

Supporting pre-service and early career science teachers through professional learning communities and research.

Teacher Programs

Students working with teachers in a classroom

Students

Providing opportunities and experiences for students to engage in research specific activities.

Student Programs

Teacher Training Programs

Early Career Teacher (ECT) Program

Three teachers talking to students about professional development in front of screen

Professional Development focused on forming professional learning communities, developing STEM focused curricula, and studying the classroom implementation of those curricula.

Project-Based Instruction Workshop

WVU student walking in stream with backpack and poles

Shifting from teacher centered to student centered classroom with broader long-term projects with heavier emphasis on data collection and analysis.

Summer Research Experiences

Woman conducting research looking at a computer

Objectives:

  • Understand the basics of conducting scientific research.
  • Understand the collaboration required in research.
  • Understand the long-term process involved in research.
  • Improve the skills to incorporate research principles in the classroom.
  • Improve confidence to lead research in the classroom.
  • Understand STEM research Careers.

Student Programs

Pulsar Science Collaboratory

  • Established hubs at multiple institutions
    • 4 in WV (supported by RII), 10 in other states (supported by NSF AISL award)
  • Students and teachers are trained online and participate in local Capstones
  • They analyze data at schools throughout the academic year
  • Rigorous Physics Education component

Large group of students all posed in a field  

Pulsar Science Collaboratory

WV SPOT

Group of students standing in a field with a satellite in the far distance behind them

(WVU, Marshall University, WVSU, Fairmont State University, Shepherd University, West Virginia Wesleyan, and WVUIT)

The West Virginia Science Public Outreach Team (WV SPOT) began in 2013 as a partnership between the Green Bank Observatory and NASA. We recruit and train WV undergraduates to bring presentations about current West Virginia science, technology, and engineering to West Virginia K-12 classrooms, museums, and youth programs. Since then, we have delivered over 500 presentations and impacted the lives of 19,020 students!

WV SPOT

Objectives/Successes:

  • Undergraduate ambassador recruitment, training and outreach program.
  • Ambassadors from 7 colleges in WV: Fairmont State University, MU, WVSU, WVWC, Shepherd, and WVUIT.
  • April 2018 Summit brought together all the UG ambassadors across the state to compare notes and refine future presentations with Ambassador feedback.

Other WVU Outreach Efforts

DIY Environmental Sensor Workshops

West Virginia University to host DIY Environmental Sensor Workshop for STEM educators. The goal of the workshop, made possible through funding from the National Science Foundation, is to introduce K-12 STEM educators, state government employees, community groups and researchers to innovate, open-source environmental monitoring systems that provide a low-cost alternative for monitoring water quality, quantity and climate in real time.

Environmental Workshops

West Virginia Watersheds Speaker Series

A four class program:

  1. Water: the source of life
  2. Wheeling Water
  3. Restoring Appalachian River Networks in a Changing Climate
  4. A Role for the Citizen Scientist

WV Watersheds

West Virginia Outdoor Learning Lab

The goal of the WVOLL is to introduce participants to the environmental sciences and give them a sound appreciation of West Virginia's water resources, the need to use them wisely, and to pass on the information to others. 

WVOLL