8th annual STEM Week comes to Eastern Oregon Classrooms

8th annual STEM Week comes to Eastern Oregon Classrooms

May 13, 2022 LA GRANDE, Ore. – Science is not only fun but can be a viable career option for interested youth. STEM Week 2022 is bringing these opportunities into classrooms and homes across the state to help a new generation enter the sciences.

Comprised of the 13 Oregon STEM Hubs, STEM Oregon is organizing the eighth annual STEM Week May 14-22. Beginning in 2014, STEM Week is an annual event to raise interest in, and provide activities for, Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math careers in Oregon. Participants can register online at https://stemoregon.org/stem-week-2022/

“This year is the eighth annual STEM Week, and it’s really a statewide movement to celebrate STEM, engage in activities and focus on STEM related content at the school level as well as in the community,” said GO STEM Executive Director David Melville.

STEM Week is divided into seven themed days for various science and engineering activities, including: Make-it Monday, Take It Apart Tuesday, What Are You Wondering Wednesday, Think About It Thursday, Field Trip Friday, Sounds and Shadows Saturday, and Soaring Sunday.

STEM Oregon will provide activity ideas and extra materials, such as information packets, for participating STEM Week groups but individual organizers can plan activities however they want and choose specific days in which to participate. Participants can also submit photos, videos, and activity updates online to the Celebrate STE(A)M Gallery. Some recommended activities this year include building a lute for Make-it Monday and a choose your own adventure plan for Field Trip Friday. 

“There is a teacher at Central Elementary, where the third graders are doing a STEM celebration with a day of rotations and engineering stations. There’s another class that’s doing a study on birds and is going to Blue Mountain Wildlife in Pendleton,” Melville said.

There are currently 13 STEM hubs, subsidiary offices of STEM Oregon. The Greater Oregon STEM (GO STEM) Hub, based at EOU,  focuses on supporting STEM efforts in PreK-12 classrooms and pathways into STEM careers in Eastern Oregon.

“There are 2300 STEM kits that went out to all fourth graders in seven Eastern Oregon counties. We are wanting those classrooms to utilize those kits during STEM week,” Melville said.

STEM Oregon is also partnering with Oregon Connections to provide a list of online public sessions with various STEM experts.

“There’s a whole list of professionals that’re doing sessions. There are some sessions about how beavers reduce wildfires. There’s an ear, nose and throat doctor that’s talking about earwax, and so it has that gross and cool factor for kids. Everything from robotics, biology to coding, it’s very easy to jump into one of these sessions and explore careers that you may have never even thought about.” 

For more information on STEM Oregon and STEM Week registration, visit https://stemoregon.org/stem-week-2022/

To learn more about the Greater Oregon STEM Hub, visit go-stem.org or facebook.com/GreaterOregonSTEM

Written by PR Intern Garrett Christensen.