Virginia State University continues to expand 4-H STEM throughout Virginia…and beyond!
Updated: October 12, 2020
Dr. Chantel Wilson loves learning about space exploration and attended Space Academy as a kid. Even though she never got to be an astronaut, she is thrilled for the opportunity to send kids to Mars!
VSU 4-H Extension Specialist Helps Develop a STEM Space Kit that Educates Youth About Mars
Dr. Chantel Wilson, Assistant Professor and 4-H STEAM Extension Specialist at Virginia State University, is helping youth soar to greater heights with a new STEM learning tool she helped developed called Mars Base Camp.
The kit, which is part of this month’s 2020 4-H STEM Challenge, features four unique hands-on activities to get kids and teens, ages 8-14, to explore mechanical engineering, physics, computer science and agriculture.
Mars Base Camp was developed by Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia 4-H and the National 4-H Council with assistance from Google. The learning tool has been met with rave reviews since being introduced in August on the National 4-H website, and has nearly 50 five-star ratings on Shop 4-H.
The 13th annual 4-H STEM Challenge, formerly known as 4-H National Youth Science Day, will be held throughout October. During the month 300,000 youth across the country will explore sending humans on a mission to Mars. The theme coincides with this year’s launch of the NASA Perseverance Rover to Mars.
“I’m elated about the success of this project, and that youth and parents are finding Mars Base Camp engaging as it teaches youth about the importance of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and agriculture,” Wilson said. “These areas are critical to their future success, and to the world’s future success, as young people use innovation, technology and creativity to solve global problems.”
Wilson, who was one of the primary investigators leading the development of the project, was primarily responsible for designing an agriculturally-themed activity for the 4-H STEM Challenge called “Crop Curiosity,” a card game similar to Canasta (a rummy-type game). In the card game, kids learn that the environment on Mars is more similar to Earth than any other planet in our solar system, but not similar enough to meet the survival requirements of humans, plants and animals without life support systems. Kids also learn what it takes to grow plants on Mars as they race to be the first to build an agriculture module for their space station by collecting the critical components before their opponents do.
The kits traditionally were designed for educators to accommodate larger numbers of youth. However, in light of COVID-19 and home-schooling requirements, the kits can be easily used by parents at home and adapted to different age groups using instructions in the Youth Guide. Wilson applied for and received a kit grant from the National 4-H Council, Science Matters and Bayer targeting 1890s institutions. These kits are intended for use with youth that have limited STEM opportunities. Wilson coordinated with Extension agents statewide and National 4-H Council to directly mail 50 4-H STEM Challenge Family kits directly to families in need. She also is working with Extension agents to distribute 60 Educator kits received as part of the grant.
Virginia Tech and Virginia State University applied jointly as Virginia Cooperative Extension and was awarded $50,000 to develop this year’s kit. Wilson and Dr. Erika Bonnett, 4-H Programming Specialist at Virginia Tech were co-primary investigators on the project, and supported by the rest of the Virginia Team: Dr. Hannah Scherer, Teaching and Learning Extension Specialist of VT; Robbie Morrison of Virginia Cooperative Extension (4-H Positive Youth Development, Campbell County); Caitlin Unterman of Virginia Episcopal School; and Dr. Shaunna Morrison of the Carnegie Institute for Science/NASA Astrobiology Institute. For information about how to get involved, visit the 4-H Stem Challenge website.
A full list of the activities is below.
Tuesdays at 2 p.m. 4-H Mars Base Camp How-To Sessions
Oct. 6, Red Planet Odyssey: Join us for some out-of-this-world fun! We will introduce you to concepts of the engineering and design process through building a rover and going on an exploratory mission on Mars.
Oct. 13, Crop Curiosity: Join us to get "curious" about growing food on Mars! This session will focus on learning and playing Crop Curiosity as we learning about growing food on Mars.
Oct. 20, Landing Zone Surveyor: Did you know that Mars has one of the largest canyons in the Solar System? Join us for an exploration of things you might find if you landed on the surface of Mars and how scientists know that they are there.
Oct. 27, Insight from Mars: Want to tell your family about your trip to Mars? Come learn how to code your own message from Mars to your family after your trip. We will walk through how to use scratch to tell our story about Mars.
Thursdays at 7 p.m. 4-H STEM Month Activities
Oct. 8, STEM Careers: Join us and talk to actual scientists who work on the NASA Mars projects. They will share how they got where they are today and how you too can have a STEM career!
Oct. 15, STEM Games: Join us for some STEM and space-themed games. Play Pictionary, Jeopardy, or other games to showcase your knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, agriculture, math or space.
Oct. 22, Mars Geoscientist Panel: What do you wonder about Mars? Join us for an engaging Question and Answer session where Virginia Tech Geoscientists who study Mars answer questions from Virginia 4-Hers.
Oct. 29, Learning About NASA: Join us to learn from and ask questions of people who have or are currently working at NASA. This session will give you an opportunity to learn about projects and programs that they work on and how they got the chance to work for NASA.
The 2020 4-H STEM Challenge was developed with support from national partners Bayer, Google, Toyota and the United States Air Force.