The STEPs program is a K-12 science outreach program at Oregon State University which is funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Its mission is to support and improve science, math, health, and engineering education for K-12 teachers and students throughout the state of Oregon. To find out more, please visit http://steps.oregonstate.edu/

The college instructors couldn’t agree more.  “It is a great example of a pipeline activity.  During each Benson visit MANY former BHS students show up to visit with their former teachers and also help with the activities. This is a clear example of the substantial impact that sustained ‘longitudinal’ exposure to opportunities can have on the lives of young people,” says Skip Rochefort, associate professor of chemical engineering and a long-standing collaborator. The partnership between OSU and Benson High School has been on-going since 1997 in conjunction with STEPs (Scientists and Teachers in Education Partnerships), formerly Science Connections, and generous funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The most recent visit focused on Engineering and included a tour of the facilities with College of Engineering Ambassadors – undergraduates that work to recruit women and minorities, a presentation by the Sustainable Energy Initiative on biodiesel, the disposable diaper lab, and an activity about oil spill recovery technologies led by Rochefort and a team of undergraduate students.  Other visits include presentations from other key faculty collaborators: chemistry with Margie Haak, entomology with Sujaya Rao, biology with Indira Rajagopal and biochemistry with Kevin Ahern.

Rochefort summarizes the impact of the program for both the Benson high school students and OSU.  “The simple fact is that bringing these students, most of whom are female and/or ethnic minorities, to the OSU campus and introducing them to science and engineering greatly enhances their likelihood of attending a four-year university. Many of these students end-up at OSU in some STEM field.”

The students, mostly in Advanced Placement biology courses, learned about speciation, island biogeography, evolutionary genetics and natural selection through a variety of hands-on activities and games led by graduate students in related disciplines.  The BIO-GradS (Broader Impacts and Outreach by Graduate Students) collaborated with Kari van Zee of STEPs (Scientists and Teachers in Education Partnerships) to put together the workshop, securing funding from OSU’s Office of Precollege Programs and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In addition to the workshops and lecture, the students were treated to a dinner and discussion with undergraduate and graduate students, answering questions about the day’s activities in addition to general campus life.