Welcome everyone; thanks for checking out our project.  All comments welcome, but any information or thoughts on measurable impact indicators and sustainability would be greatly appreciated.  

Thank you for sharing this project. I am excited to see a focus on rural communities and engagement of high school students in facilitating sessions. Given the focus on exposure activities, what sort of follow up has been requested, or do you foresee as being useful, to those in rural communities who get excited about the CS-infused activities? Perhaps others that work in rural communities can talk to issues of access and application as well.

I like the approach of introducing STEM in unexpected places - home shows, libraries, community events, etc. I wanted to know more about who is identifying such opportunities/existing events and locations - Is it the project leads, the maker mentors being trained as facilitators, other groups, some combination of the above? Similarly, I wondered about how the word is getting out to potential maker mentors or community participants to take part in these opportunities - Are there particular communication or outreach strategies that you've found to be effective in reaching rural community members?

This video addresses an issue that will be critical for our next generation - taking technology and STEM education to rural communities. The video captures the training and energy of the maker + mentor. Definitely a project that captures increasing student confidence and building leaders for STEM education. Dynamic project and excellent video!

Thank you for sharing your project! Connecting with rural populations is especially important, and Wausau is a really unique community in Wisconsin as well. From the video, it appears that there is quite a bit of community engagement. Can you share more about how your project has impacted the community more broadly? How have you developed partnerships with the community? What sort of buy-in do you have? I am specifically curious if you have insights particular to how people might approach this in rural contexts. 

I notice the idea of "exposure" activities is mentioned in the video. I wonder what the next step might be for those who participate in these workshops. How do you envision sustaining participation beyond exposure? 

Full disclosure: I have some early connections to this project via Erica Halverson & CMP. :) 

Community involvement has been significant although it took time and effort in the beginning.  Through these community contacts we will be getting our resources out to a wide variety of locations.  Our current mentors have finished a two year commitment, but many have expressed interest in continuing on with the project.  Additionally, Northcentral Technical College has the physical space and resources needed to continue to offer training for activities and mentoring.

Heading to CMP in July!

Mentors are reimbursed for their time.  We have been fortunate to have a core group of approximately 12 mentors commit for the duration of the two years.  We also had some who attended sporadically either because of a lack of commitment or a busy high school schedule with extra-curricular activities and/or work.