GO STEM’s Eastern Oregon Mobile Maker Lab outreach continues to grow, plans to visit 7 Eastern counties

GO STEM’s Eastern Oregon Mobile Maker Lab outreach continues to grow, has 7-month plan to visit Eastern counties

LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Greater Oregon STEM Hub (GO STEM), and their Mobile Maker Lab are seeing their Eastern Oregon outreach and engagement grow following a launch earlier this year.  

“We are encouraging young people to get excited about science, technology, engineering, and math, as well as preparing students for future careers in STEM,” David Melville,  Executive Director, Greater Oregon STEM Hub. “There is a lot of excitement seeing the lab come down the road as it visits our rural communities.” 

The Mobile Maker Lab (MML), dedicated at EOU on Jan. 25, 2023, is part of a small fleet that travels throughout Eastern Oregon serving children, preschool through high school. Melville said the lab was at the Umatilla County Fair last week, and will be at the Morrow County Fair this week with OMSI, connecting with young people to spread enthusiasm for science, technology engineering, and math. Additionally, the MML will be at the Pendleton Roundup and Girls Tech Day this autumn.

Melville said when they first launched the MML they knew they were tasked with serving over 100 schools across the seven rural Eastern Oregon counties, but it was hit and miss as they could not regularly visit all corners of their region. The program now plans to concentrate its efforts by spending a month in each county’s schools before moving on so they could truly concentrate on selected areas of their region during this upcoming school year. 

The program began as a College of Education faculty project at Eastern Oregon University in 2014.

“It was born and raised at Eastern Oregon University and has major support from the College of Education,” David Melville said.  “It was conceived to provide and support STEM education to remote areas across the seven rural counties of our region.” 

Beginning with the 2023-24 school year, the MML will travel to deliver in-person STEM lessons and hands-on activities to schools across the GO STEM region, including Harney, Umatilla, Grant, Morrow, Baker, Union, and Wallowa counties. 

The Mobile Maker Lab is a classroom on wheels, with hands-on STEM learning activities, a career-connected learning curriculum, and an open concept of tinkering with STEM-related tools and materials. The MML was created with the mission of making STEM education accessible to all students across Eastern Oregon, no matter how remote their location. 

This PreK-12 and community-focused curriculum includes concepts such as renewable energy, ag. science, aerospace, bio-medical, and computer science, as well as other career-focused projects that can accommodate different grade levels’ learning and diverse schools’ interests and needs. 

Melville said Eastern Oregon University’s Greater Oregon STEM (GO STEM) Hub is helping break barriers and providing support to give students across Eastern Oregon direct access to engaging computer science education tools and professional development. Learn more at www.go-stem.org.