After a summer where K-State’s College of Education (COE) brought STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) experiences to 775 middle school and high school students during three weeks in June, we are gearing up to expand our two new programs.
STEAM CLASSIC
The COE’s REC offered the Virtual STEAM Academy for the second year, with a focus on providing STEAM opportunities for rural schools. It provided hands-on, engaging classes for students, with topics ranging from writing to literature to sports science. Kansas schools, home-school groups and individuals participated in this summer’s program. Through the COE’s Global Education Outreach office, students from Ecuador, Colombia, Nigeria and Japan classrooms also joined the camp, providing a unique learning opportunity for everyone involved. Led by Principal Calista Speake (virtualsteam@ksu.edu), the Virtual STEAM Academy offered eight different topics and reached approximately 385 middle schoolers. A STEAM teacher leads the classes through Zoom, and schools provide an educator on site to assist.
Check out Summer 2022’s report at Virtual STEAM.
PROJECT LEAPES
A second camp experience held at the same time was Project LEAPES (Learning, Exploration, and Application for Prospective Engineering Students).
Supported by a nearly $2.7 million Department of Defense grant received by the COE’s Rural Education Center, Project LEAPES involved nearly 390 middle school and high school students. The center partnered with the University of Kansas Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, with some content offered at Kansas State University-Salina and the University of Kansas. In the first year of the three-year grant, 33 schools from 27 Kansas districts participated. Educators received professional development as well as more than $4,500 in drones and coding robots to use later in the summer to teach their students in their own classrooms. The grant focused on rural schools throughout the state of Kansas.
The LEAPES activities also will be offered through the 2022-23 school year, and plans are under way to develop a Virtual STEAM option for the school year. Schools are encouraged to participate in both camps.
Check out the LEAPES 2022 report here.
Want to be a part of Virtual STEAM and Project LEAPES? Contact the REC at ruraled@ksu.edu.