We are excited to share our project work with you and are very interested in learning from the  wide array of STEM educators and researchers in this community about which of the areas of our project's emerging impacts is of the greatest interest to the community /which of the highlighted activities or impacts shared in the presentation do you feel is most warranting of further exploration and knowledge generation efforts?  

Hello Rebecca, Adrienne, and team. Thank you for the video. Can you say more about the role of the community colleges in the success of your model?

I am happy to jump in first and say that the local community college team is the driving force behind the work to develop the project curriculum materials providing the content expertise and facilities needed to develop and  implement the activities.  Importantly, from the outset the team recognized the essential insights and engagement that would be needed from the local education community to make this project a success and has annually invited a team of local educators to assist them in the design process through the creation and formal engagement of a design team comprised of local educators with expertise in middle school STEM education.

I'd add that the community college is able to be very responsive to emerging opportunities to get people excited about STEM, whether that's learning about a middle school science night or a chance to speak at a community meeting.  Because rapport-building is a large part of the model, the faculty and staff are prioritizing relationships over any ask.  It's more of inviting people to learn alongside, to critique, guide, share, and partner together.  I think that's one of the main reasons they have been able to gain traction within a community where the pace of change is slower than other communities.

This looks like a great program! Do you have plans to follow the students or classes that participate to learn of the longer term impacts of your work?  

Designing ROVs sound like a great way to engage students in STEM.  I'm pleased to hear you're trying to involve parents.  It's not easy to get parents engaged with all of their other responsibilities.  Have you had much success in this area?

This sounds like a great experience for Floridian middle schoolers! I am curious about the lab tours at the community college and the visit to the manufacturing plant. Did the students have a chance to learn about different careers associated with these field experiences? And, how did these visits connect to their STEM curriculum?