STEM Education Institute Tuesday Seminar
In this seminar, titled "STEM RAYS After-School Science Clubs," Marie Silver and Kate Devlin will discuss the collaboration between science faculty, teachers, and fourth through eighth grade students.
The STEM ED Institute is in its second year of an NSF-funded project designed to increase student interest in science in the fourth through eighth grades in Franklin County. A collaborative project with Greenfield Community College, STEM RAYS stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Research Academies for Young Scientists. Teachers from schools around Franklin County work directly with science faculty from UMass, GCC, and Smith College on authentic research projects that they then implement with students in after-school science clubs. Kate Devlin, Adjunct Faculty at GCC and a STEM ED Institute staff member, is one of the after-school science club instructors working with Curtice Griffin on bird research. Kate will describe her work with STEM RAYS and discuss the impact she sees on student interest in science. Students in her three after school clubs at Deerfield and Sheffied Elementary are engaging in a wide variety of bird ecology studies on a weekly basis in their after-school programs.