COLUMBUS, Ohio – The research done by the University of Mount Union’s Dr. Richelle Teeling-Smith, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, in collaboration with Dr. Chris Orban, assistant professor of physics at The Ohio State University, was recently featured in a podcast for The PAST (Partnering Anthropology with Science and Technology) Foundation.

The podcast was featured as the 21^st installment of the Foundation’s “Learning Unboxed” series and focused on Teeling-Smith and Orban’s work with the STEMcoding program. The STEMcoding project both provides resources and training for K-12 teachers who want to learn how to integrate computation into their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses, and creates fun educational opportunities for students through activities like Hack-a-thons and summer camps such as the STEMcoding Summer Camp for high school and middle school girls.  

Mount Union is in its second year of hosting a STEMcoding Summer Camp for girls in grades 8-12 with activities facilitated by Teeling-Smith and Mount Union students. The camp will be held July 8-12 on Mount Union’s campus.

“We were really excited to get an opportunity to have the conversation with the experts at the PAST Foundation about the state of computer science education in Ohio and beyond and the possible resources and tools teachers can use to prepare their students for STEM careers and to provide the necessary level of computational “fluency” needed to navigate our tech-based society,” said Teeling-Smith.

According to its website, the PAST Foundation is a non-profit provider of STEM education, school design and workforce development. In the past sixteen years, the PAST team has reached out with programs, training and research across 29 states, 146 School Districts, and 15,000 teachers impacting more than 143,000 students.

Listen to the podcast on the Foundation’s website at pastfoundation.org/021-stemcoding-reimaging-stem-education-with-chris-orban-richelle-teeling-smith.

To learn more about the STEMcoding Summer Camp, visit mountunion.edu/stemcoding-summer-camp.  To learn more about the STEMcoding project, visit https://u.osu.edu/stemcoding/.