COOKEVILLE – The staff at Tennessee Tech’s Millard Oakley STEM Center have been keeping kids busy through their STEM at Home initiative.
The STEM Center offers hands-on experiences through FAB Fridays for grades 3rd to 8th and Safari Saturdays from Pre-K to 3rd graders.
When COVID-19 forced facilities such as the STEM Center to shut down, staff members had to get creative to keep kids engaged.
“We wanted to continue serving the community through activities similar to the outreach events we host for families at the STEM Center,” said Carlos Galindo, outreach coordinator with the Millard Oakley STEM Center. “We thought downloadable and digitial content that is easily accessible by the families was the best way to do it given the Stay at Home recommendations from the state.”
The STEM at Home initiative began March 30, with a new theme being introduced every Monday.
“We’ve been averaging about 150 visits to the STEM at Home activities website per week,” Galindo said. “So, we’ve had about 1,350 visits since we started.”
Every week, parents download and print the activities where they can find detailed instructions on how to set up the activities for the students.
“We also have activities and book readings for students in K-8th grade,” Galindo said. “The guest readers are usually Tech faculty, staff, students or from the local community.”
Famous Tech alum and The Voice winner Jake Hoot was a recent guest reader.
STEM at Home content can be found online at www.tntech.edu/education/stem/family-community.php.
