One hundred and eighty 12—18 year old students and their teachers in 6 schools in Eastern Washington state use GIS, GPS, robotics, videogame programming and more to investigate local community issues by conducting research with scientists and mentors.
The "TechREACH" project is designed to reach underserved middle school students and teachers in rural, eastern Washington. The project goals are to increase interest in STEM and IT, build the capacity of school and community audiences, and increase the number of students pursuing STEM careers. Project partners include Washington State University MESA, Digipen Institute of Technology, and the Red Llama software company. The project activities include after school clubs led by certified teachers, a two-week summer technology workshop, e-mentoring, teacher professional development, parent outreach, and college preparatory support. After school clubs will use the NSF-funded MESA Real-World Mathematics through Science Modules to investigate local community issues by conducting research with scientists and mentors. The modified modules will enable students to learn about the Washington apple industry in Year 1, community design in Year 2, and renewable energy in Year 3. Summer research activities will provide students with an in-depth understanding of robotics (Year 1), animation (Year 2), and video game programming (Year 3). IT skills and content will emphasize the use of GIS, GPS, robotics, web-based programming, 3-D modeling, 3-D animation software and videogame programming. This project will serve 180 students ages 12-18 in six rural schools.