STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
STEM Grant Partnership Projects
Propelling STEM: A Partnership with ODU/VMASC, Newport News Public Schools, & Newport News Shipbuilding
The Propelling STEM project seeks to make impactful connections for students in 3rd through 8th grade through an interactive and gamified exploration of ten digital shipbuilding areas.
The immersive website will provide explorations in digital shipbuilding and repair content, careers, and pathways. Propelling STEM will host four gamified simulations and six interactive simulations integration Virginia Department of Education’s computer science standards, STEM career pathways, and at-home connections for students.
The Virginia Air & Space Science Center STEM 360
The Virginia Air & Space Science Center STEM 360: Multi-Setting, Multi-Platform STEM Education Program & Research Study is focused on evaluating different levels of STEM engagement, expanding participants’ workforce awareness, and positively affecting attitude towards STEM education.
The Center’s education team has been steadily providing the students with multiple opportunities to learn and embrace STEM content in different ways, through multiple touch points in STEM education. The touch points include educational outreach programs and field experiences to informal STEM institutions, STEM Coach Engagement and support through a STEM Ambassadorship (Center family membership), and Family and Out-of-School Time Engagement.
EAGER: Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research
In Virginia and across the nation, school divisions are incorporating a more interdisciplinary approach to STEM education that prioritizes engineering experiences that allow students to solve authentic, real-world problems.
The EAGER, or Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research grant is in a special NSF category for "potentially transformative" research ideas. The potential benefit to participants is huge. Research has shown that interactions with authentic role models in engineering can greatly increase students' knowledge and identities in STEM fields. This is particularly true for minority students, and these populations are still significantly underrepresented in engineering and related fields.
CyberSTEAM
Newport News Public Schools launched a CyberSTEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) program at seven schools thanks to a grant from the Department of Defense Education Activity.
The CyberSTEAM program exposes students to coding, robotics and a game-based cybersecurity curriculum. CyberSTEAM is designed to activate computational thinking and problem-solving skills. Students make connections between the language of computer science and fun STEAM activities in several computer science strands: algorithms and programming, computing systems, cybersecurity, data and analysis, impacts of computing, and networks and the Internet.
