STEAM Trek – The West Virginia Virtual STEM and the Arts Festival
Welcome to the new and exciting web based educational game platform STEAM Trek! We hope you have fun exploring and learning about the many great educational resources, opportunities, and support material available from so many fantastic organizations, institutions, and individuals from West Virginia and beyond! Visit STEAM Trek to play by clicking the stamp below or read on to learn more below.
Press Release
PRESS RELEASE: “STEAM Trek…The West Virginia Virtual STEM and the Arts Festival” Inaugural Release Launching on March 21st, 2022!
- Virtual platform is free and open to the public
- Educator Mini Grants for classroom materials and student volunteer/service hours available for trying it out
- Random prize drawings for educators/parents who register
Barboursville, WV, March 21, 2022 – West Virginia Alliance for STEM and the Arts (WV All STAR), is releasing the newly designed, web-based interactive game platform “STEAM Trek” available to students, educators, parents, and the public at www.wvallstarsteamtrek.org, beginning Monday, March 21st, 2022.
STEAM Trek is a web-based game platform that is being “built in public” by WV All STAR and sponsored by a grant from NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. A collaboration of many great organizations around the state of West Virginia and beyond have worked with us to share their own engaging and unique content developed by their talented educators and staff, and we are thrilled to promote and raise awareness of their work in the game. STEAM Trek is also a platform to showcase students’ and educators’ work as demonstrated by the student projects designed by Mrs. Tamara Westfall’s coding classes at Poca High School shared in the Arcade Hall. STEAM Trek can be explored in the spirit of “free play” or it can be explored in a more structured and time-conscious way through guided “treks” as may be accessed via the “trek box” at the start of the game. Learners can earn “coins” in the game by exploring as well as answering quizzes about the content, and then redeem their “coins” at the “Prize Shop” for virtual prizes to be used in the game.
We consider STEAM Trek, while designed, created and implemented by WV All STAR, a “build in public” platform because as the name simply implies – this is a platform that is transparently being built, tested, tweaked, improved, and grown by the very people who we hope it benefits the most – the organizations that have expertise, resources, and opportunities to share, the educators who are invaluable partners and the experts on learning, and most of all the students who inspire us to keep working and who will be our future problem solvers, creators, dreamers, inventors, and leaders.
We encourage educators both inside and outside of the classroom, parents, and students to explore “STEAM Trek” and provide their feedback on their “Trek” experience with us. There are a limited number of Educator Mini Grants, as provided by funding from NASA WV SGC, available for classroom materials to educators working with learners inside and/or outside the classroom. Details about the Educator Mini Grants and how to apply can be found in the Educator Mini Grant Opportunity document, which includes a link to the Educator Mini Grant Application Form.
Students who would like to earn volunteer/service hours by testing specific aspects of the game can either contact us directly or have an education coordinator, club sponsor, etc. contact us about the details for that opportunity.
Educators and parents should register here to be sure to keep aware of new updates, features, resources, and/or organizations added to the game. Also, educators and parents who register prior to June 1st, 2022 will be automatically entered to win a prize from a selection of prizes generously offered by the Green Bank Observatory and First2 Network, as well as have free access (for a limited time) to the documentary films featured in the game.
Educators and learners who are working on great educational projects of their own, or have an idea/project to share, have the opportunity to share and promote their finished project via “STEAM Trek” as well! Contact us to learn more about how, and about the opportunity to work with your learners on building communication and project skills through collaborating with us on your project along the way.
Exploring “STEAM Trek” you will find unique types of virtual resources including virtual tours, lectures, master and mentor videos, lab demos, educational material, student support resources, and more made available from great organizations, institutions, projects, and individuals from around West Virginia and beyond. Some of the participating organizations include Alec Neu and L.U.N.A., Brooklyn Castle and Katie Dellamaggiore, The Clio and Dr. David Trowbridge, College for WV, Education Alliance, Elk River Ramblers, First2 Network, Green Bank Observatory, Heritage Farm, HSTA, Huntington Museum of Art, little green men and sarah kolberg, Marshall University Physics, NASA Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility, Pulsar Search Collaboratory, Quarantine Life and Tijah Bumgarner and Curren Sheldon, Radioactive Robotics, Robert C Byrd Institute (RCBI), Science Olympiad, TEDx MarshallU, Tamara Westfall & Her Poca High School Coding Classes of 2020 and 2021, and West Virginia State University. Stay tuned for updates about more organizations and resources added to the game!
If you and/or your organization would like to share resources and opportunities for learners and educators through STEAM Trek, please contact us at deanaw.wvallstar@gmail.com.
