On behalf of our entire team, welcome to our page and thank you for taking the time to view our passion project! We are excited to share our video titled - teachHOUSTON STEM Interactive: STEM Accessible Worldwide.

When COVID-19 put a stop to in-person learning, we had no idea how many students and families would be positively impacted by our online interactive. Initially, we had hoped for a few hundred participants and ended up reaching more than 3,000 students from all over the world. Last summer, we covered math, science, and engineering in just three short weeks and through pre-recorded lessons, live Zoom sessions, and a highly interactive Facebook page, we were able to make STEM accessible.

Please enjoy our video, which details more about our teachHOUSTON STEM interactive (tHSI), and feel free to check out our archived 2020 lessons: https://uh.edu/nsm/teachhouston/summer-camps/stem-interactive/2020/lessons/

We invite you to comment, like, and share so we can engage further. As for discussion, we are especially interested in your specific project and:

• Ways you adjusted during the pandemic.
• How you believe we can work together to make STEM accessible for all.

Thank you, and we look forward to your feedback and insights!

Welcome to our page everyone! A lot of heart went into our tHSI and this video. Looking forward to learning from all of your videos and sharing more about our own. 

The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UH is very proud of this amazing and innovative work and its powerful, broad reaching impact during the pandemic!  I hope you all enjoy this video.

Thanks for sharing your success story! Scaling great local programs like this is obviously a big challenge in education. I'm wondering, what do you think made it possible for you to take this from a program serving 50 students in person to over 3,000 virtually? Did you set out to do this with a specific plan and structures in mind, or did it just happen?

Thanks for an inspiring video.  The summer experience was clearly transformative for students.  Please tell us a bit more about the level of interactivity that you were able to achieve for 3,000 students.  How did you facilitate students from around the world having experiences with each other?  Did all 3,000 connect directly with staff, or were some of them merely accessing available asynchronous materials?  What did a "session" look like?

Thanks.

Welcome to our teachHOUSTON page! We hope you can take a moment to view the short video showcasing how we as a community experience making the impossible possible! Through the teachHOUSTON STEM Interactive, our students, faculty and staff at University of Houston joined forces to make STEM teaching and learning through a pandemic a fun, informative and rewarding experiencing for everyone involved. 

We look forward to learning from other STEM colleagues in the field and hope to hear from you! 

Welcome to one of the most exciting events in teaching to result from the Covid-19 era.  When Covid-19 sent students home to learn in isolation, this teachHOUSTON STEM Interactive project found a way to reunite students with teachers and peers.  As the project plan developed, the excitement built, students joined and participated.  We are grateful to be able to share some of the results in this video and welcome you to enjoy and provide feedback.  Thank you for taking the time to view our work!  

I’m excited to see this new program and how it will excite each student

Your project is so inspiring and the students certainly seemed to learn and thrive though the lessons  - an amazing feat considing the online platform - congratulations. I am curious to know more about how you were able to 'recruit' the university students and did this oppotunity encourage any of them to consider shifting to science teaching? 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful program. I appreciate that your lessons and projects utilized common household items to allow more students to engage in hands-on STEM learning despite being stuck at home due to the pandemic. My guess would be that this aspect of accessibility may have played a part in motivating 3,000 students from around the world to participate in the program. Amazing!

Thank you for your kind words.  

I love this so much! It's wonderful to see how the program benefited the younger students and the pre-service teachers who participated, and how you took advantage of the opportunity to reach even more students. I'd love to hear more about the drawings that students made of engineers. How many times did students make those drawings? How many students' drawings changed over time to show engineers who looked like them? Thank you!

Thank you for sharing the wonderful work you all are doing for education!  This was a win for preservice teachers and for the participating students.  I was touched by the student interview at the end.  That moment is what gives all educators the fuel to keep doing what we love to do...teach...no matter the conditions.  

@Allison Master - I have done the same "draw a scientist" activity for the last 3 years (courtesy of what I learned through graduate work at U of H).  The number of student drawings that change from the first day of school to the last day of school is amazing.  After taking Mariam's engineering class, I started putting the engineering design process at the forefront of my lessons.  Putting tools in students' hands is when I saw the change in drawings occur.  My students weren't learning science anymore...they were experiencing science.  The white male scientist changed age, color, and gender.  

Thank you for sharing the wonderful work you all are doing for education!  This was a win for preservice teachers and for the participating students.  I was touched by the student interview at the end.  That moment is what gives all educators the fuel to keep doing what we love to do...teach...no matter the conditions.  

@Allison Master - I have done the same "draw a scientist" activity for the last 3 years (courtesy of what I learned through graduate work at U of H).  The number of student drawings that change from the first day of school to the last day of school is amazing.  After taking Mariam's engineering class, I started putting the engineering design process at the forefront of my lessons.  Putting tools in students' hands is when I saw the change in drawings occur.  My students weren't learning science anymore...they were experiencing science.  The white male scientist changed age, color, and gender.  

This made my heart so happy! I’m so glad this program was able to succeed the way that it did. Thank for the inspiring video! 

-Proud teachHouston alum 

Collaboration between key stakeholders can make a great impact on students, as evident at the end of the video. I am curious about your lesson design/structure to lead the sheer number of participants in the synchronous session and any challenges you encountered along the way. Furthermore, do you have plans to expand the program to upper-grade elementary students? 

Hello Khyati,

Thank you for watching our video. We had 5 teams (one for each day of the week with a specific theme).  On each team, we had a faculty member, in-service teacher, and undergraduate preservice teachers.  Since each team was responsible for one day each week, they were able to practice the lesson ahead of time and also brainstorm ways to make it engaging.  We would use nearpod, chat features, simulations, games, and other apps.  It was challenging with the number of students that participated and we ended up increasing the number of daily Zoom sessions after day 1 so that more could participate. The other part that was challenging is that we (faculty included) were new to delivering online lessons and had never hosted a virtual camp.  Every day was a new adventure!   We were very fortunate to have a dedicated team. 

We would like to expand this to upper-grade elementary and also to high school students in the future (pending funding).  We did have some upper-level elementary students participate during summer 2020.  However, it was targeted for those going into grades 6-9. 

Thank you to your team for using your amazing talents and creativity to make sure that these students continue to learn. 

As always, teachHouston provided quality learning STEM learning experiences, even during a pandemic, for middle school students. I am so impressed with your outreach efforts. Thank you for all you do with preservice teachers as well, to prepare them with the knowledge and skills to be successful in the classroom. Thanks to Paige, Mariam, Jackie, and Ramona for sharing your passion and inspiring future scientists!

As always, teachHouston provided quality learning STEM learning experiences, even during a pandemic, for middle school students. I am so impressed with your outreach efforts. Thank you for all you do with preservice teachers as well, to prepare them with the knowledge and skills to be successful in the classroom. Thanks to Paige, Mariam, Jackie, and Ramona for sharing your passion and inspiring future scientists!

As always, teachHouston provided quality learning STEM learning experiences, even during a pandemic, for middle school students. I am so impressed with your outreach efforts. Thank you for all you do with preservice teachers as well, to prepare them with the knowledge and skills to be successful in the classroom. Thanks to Paige, Mariam, Jackie, and Ramona for sharing your passion and inspiring future scientists!

@Cutee Hudson Thank you so much for your kind words and taking the time to visit our page!

@Tina Hovance Thank you for all of your support and encouraging words on this endeavor! 

Tina - thank you so much for viewing our video and for your support of our pre and in-service teachers. 

Thank you teachHouston for leading the way during this most challenging year in education. Your expertise and ability to pivot provided much needed hands-on and collaborative science learning experiences for so many students. Thank you too for modeling what STEM can look like when students are not in the classroom. I feel confident your program helped to deepen curiosity in, and passion for, experiencing science in students, as well as in educators:)

Thank you teachHouston for leading the way during this most challenging year in education. Your expertise and ability to pivot provided much needed hands-on and collaborative science learning experiences for so many students. Thank you too for modeling what STEM can look like when students are not in the classroom. I feel confident your program helped to deepen curiosity in, and passion for, experiencing science in students, as well as in educators:)

It is a very inspiring and impressive video. STEM Interactive not only provided an interactive platform for students during the pandemic but also took it to another level by increasing the participation in the program from 50 to 3000. It also gave students an opportunity to explore their own self. The students who were not sure what engineer looks like were able to identify the engineer within themselves. I am proud of all the presenters of teachHouston program who made it a great success story.

This is a great project highlighting girls in engineering! I love how the girl drew a picture of a man as an engineer, but then changed it too herself. As a researcher and co-presenter, when I was a child, researchers were old men in business suits-lol.  I had not seen myself-young, short, blond woman as a researcher. This is a great way to change the way girls and women see themselves! Awesome! 

Hi Toby, Thank you so much for your comments.  We appreciate it. 

Thank you Toby.  Very well said.

Love, love, love this work, Paige and team. Grateful for your deep commitment to equity-centered experiences for students!

Thank you Cathy!  I appreciate your comments!

Super excited to see the work you are doing with students all over the world! :) 

Thank you for the positive feedback!

Amazing job! Congratulations!

Amazing job! Congratulations!

As a parent, a UH employee, a Doctorate student in Education, and someone with an extensive background in research, I  couldn't have been more proud to witness this incredible, creative, informative effort in transforming the lives of 3000 students across the globe, regardless of neighborhoods and ability, including my children during the pandemic.  This program is truly an example of how to turn on the lightbulbs, trigger curiosity, and cultivate an interest in STEM.   This program is a testament that EVERY STUDENT CAN when given an opportunity.  Thank you for giving them that opportunity!

Wow! Thank you so much for the positive feedback!!

Great video and project! 

Great video and project! 

Great video and project! 

Thank your for the positive feedback!

Amazing work!! Congrats!

Amazing work!! Congrats!

Amazing work!! Congrats!

Thank you Tiffany.

Totally Amazing. I am planning to enroll Aarti this summer as well. Thank you for your support and organizing STEM Interactive classes. 

Thank you for your support.  We will be so excited to have Aarti this summer.  

Thank you for providing this virtual global opportunity to students. I like the fact that students feel great by collaborating with you in this great project. Also, It's great to see that you are bringing students from around the globe to create solutions. 

Happy Friday!! Thank you for visiting our project page! This endeavor was an incredible experience for our entire team and we do hope you sense that as you watch the video. Feel free to check out our archived 2020 lessons: https://uh.edu/nsm/teachhouston/summer-camps/stem-interactive/2020/lessons/

We invite you to comment, like, and share so we can engage further. As for discussion, we are especially interested in your specific project and:

• Ways you adjusted during the pandemic.
• How you believe we can work together to make STEM accessible for all.

Thank you! We can’t wait to connect and discuss! 

What a wonderful quick pivot for your summer camp program. Since it was so successful, and reached so many more kids, are you thinking of continuing it in some form whenever the pandemic allows for in-person again. Congrats too on a wonderful, warm-hearted video!

Great work. This is inspiring for young kids to get interested in STEM. Love some of the experiments pics.

Thank you for the positive feedback! It was a great experience!

Thank you, teachHouston team!  Fantastic video, wonderful program.

We very much have been looking forward to learning from, and connecting with programs with similarities to ours.  This year especially, with an emphasis on remote and/or virtual engaging learning. Truly participatory, hands-on STEM. Informal and formal education together.

The STEM for All Video Showcase is everything we were hoping for, and more!  Finding your video and program is a real treat!

What a wonderful program! Thank you for sharing and so glad you could pivot to virtual. Your story brought tears to my eyes. You should be so proud! Way to go UofH!

Thank you Rita for your nice comments. 

Thank you so much Rita for watching our video and sharing those kind comments!

@James Callahan We are always looking to build partnerships throughout the STEM community! I am interested to know more about ClimateChaneEducation.org as we look to further develop informal STEM experiences for our community. 

I cannot wait to be a part of tHSI this summer! This looks so fun for the young STEM masters and the teachHOUSTON interns alike, as we all get to learn from one another and have FUN with STEM topics (most importantly).

Such an important program! Great work.

Such an important program! Great work.

 Incredible! I love the emphasis on inclusion within the world of STEM as for younger children they can see that no matter their background they are capable of entering this world and making a difference through their passion. 

 Incredible! I love the emphasis on inclusion within the world of STEM as for younger children they can see that no matter their background they are capable of entering this world and making a difference through their passion. 

How incredibly enlightening! Wonderful work! Congratulations to everyone involved in shedding light on such a forgotten field! 

This is amazing! I love that it’s free and not only helping younger students, but involving college students as well. Just watching the video of the student almost crying shows how much this can affect each person! 

Such an inspiring video. It’s great to see programs taking the right steps to prepare the next generation for STEM programs while showing them that anything is possible regardless of their gender. I would love to see more programs like this across our education system!

Very powerful! You can feel the students passion for this project. Very informative! 

Very powerful! You can feel the students passion for this project. Very informative! 

Thank you for your kind words Evan!  

I agree! The students’ exciting was the best part! Thank you for the kind words, Evan!

Amazing! I love how this program gives an equal opportunity for students and sparks an interest STEM. Congratulations to everyone involved! 

Thanks Vanessa! We appreciate the kind words and are excited to continue the program!

Thank you for the many comments on the program. I am amazed how a summer institute meant for 60 local/regional students mushroomed into a 3000+ event, thanks to the Zoom technology and "kitchen-like" labs, which the Grade 6-9 students clearly loved and learned from.

What a great video and program! I’m exited to see what teachHOUSTON does in the future!

Amazing! love seeing the joy in the students eyes as they share their experiences and excitement about being seen. I also love how inclusive the program is and especially for young girls how it opens their eyes to having a career in STEM and that it’s not only a field for men. Incredible program!