STEAM Trek – The West Virginia Virtual STEM and the Arts Festival

Authors

  • Deana White West Virginia Alliance for STEM and the Arts
  • Josh White

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55632/pwvas.v94i1.908

Abstract

West Virginia Alliance for STEM and the Arts (WV All STAR) has developed a free, web-based interactive game platform “STEAM Trek” which is now available to students, educators, parents, and the public.  STEAM Trek currently promotes and shares the educational resources and opportunities of over 22 different organizations, institutions, individuals, student/educator teams, etc. from WV and beyond, and includes over 250 unique links (with plans to include more) to material including but not limited to virtual tours, lectures, student support material (e.g. career exploration and college readiness resources), activities, films, etc.  Users are incentivized to explore and learn via free play and guided treks, earning virtual coins which can then be redeemed for virtual prizes to be used in fun ways in the game.  WV All STAR considers STEAM Trek a “build in public” platform as it is being released with incentives for feedback from educators and students such that it can be improved to serve the users in the best way possible. STEAM Trek has been beta tested and revised per feedback from the Marshall University HATS STEAM Camp and attendees of the National Youth Science Camp in 2021, and was demonstrated at NASA Day at the Clay Center in 2022.  Educators and learners can also contribute to the game by sharing their own created content as exemplified by the Poca High School coding classes’ contributions found in the Arcade portion of the game.

Downloads

Published

2022-04-22

How to Cite

Deana White, & Josh White. (2022). STEAM Trek – The West Virginia Virtual STEM and the Arts Festival. Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science, 94(1). https://doi.org/10.55632/pwvas.v94i1.908

Issue

Section

Meeting Abstracts-Oral