Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The targeted audience of SAP provided more than 100 low-resource youth in the USVI an opportunity to learn about agriculture and expand their awareness of food security and water scarcity in the USVI. The project has served more than 300 youth this past year and is designed as a STEM ecosystem to prepare youth for college. It's a fun and interactive program that serves as a way for high and junior school-age youth to create a pipeline for higher education in STEM expose them to STEM-based careers and vocations including advanced degrees, and science careers, and increase awareness of water conservation and resources including water and soil quality to help rebuild a battered workforce post storms and to promote a global, high-quality scientific workforce in the USVI to benefit the public at large. The project leverages science specifically in the Next Generation of STEM Standards (NGSS) in science and math, which are the USVI Department of Education territorial standards for science to make science funand engaging. Changes/Problems:We had two Cat 5 hurricanes, COVID-19, and power and internet outages that occur almost daily are things that kept this project from really blossoming. We did well but if we had not had those things I would have had more than 300 youth this year - over the project period we've exposed more than 1k people to this project which we are very proud and grateful for USDA NIFA for aiding us and standing by us - even in times of great uncertainty such as the storms, recovery and rebuilding process which some 7 years later is still ongoing. Thankyou USDA NIFA! what a gift to have had the opportunity to bring this project forward. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Student and teacher training in kits was conducted at UVI and in the classrooms. Wealso used many training tools in physics and provided field trips to youth to UVI to meet with and talk to students, take part in mini-classes in climate, chemistry and physics. The funding from USDA NIFA helps so much- the teachers love it as they get supplies and tools plus in-class support and training!! The WQ and soil kits are also used to show what our soil is and how we must work to limit erosion and conserve water. They also help in that theyshow ways that kits and technology can be used in ag and benefit our community. The STEM kits were fun - we made a volcano. Not gonna lie -- totally got in trouble for that one and was told to never do that again but hey whilemessy it was fun as we live on an island. Our goal was toshare how we live on this rock and what our earthquakes are and how they work.Also, fun way to showcase ANR and what we as Virgin Islanders can do to help conserve, preserve, and ensure we have food security in the USVI. We also held two drone video trainings which we shared with teachers and students which was really exciting for them to learn about and know that they are used in science. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have done many videos, which we share with the classes and we also do many career PPs where we create short videos and insert them in the PP's so the youth can see what we do and how our community works together. We also have done a few interviews with schools and students across the US so we can Zoom into classes and share about engineering and technology. This is a fun way to show which types of tools and tech areused in ag and water collection. We also have a large number of training PP's we use for everything from soil and water quality to filtration use so we can extend learning to our senior and broader community. We are creating new ones now so we can keep the streamof learning going. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is our last year and we will be closing the contract - sadly, I will miss this project so I may need to write another DEG to continue our efforts as this was a fun way to get youth in STT, STX, and STJ to work and collaborate as teams which was really exciting and enjoyable for the educators, collaborators and youth!!! Thankyou!!

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The storms have still left many schools and teachers without much-needed hands-on materials and supplies to teach or advance basic STEM programs including math, chemistry, and physical science as well as physics, and limit their ability to offer state-of-the-art technology in the classroom. chemistry kits in food safety and PH have been so exciting to take to classes and demos for the youth. They then were able to communicate in their classes and with other student scientists their findings. We made little mini-commercials to share what we learned. A hilarious, fun, and exceptionally entertaining way to engage youth in STEM by using scientific communication as a way to share our work in the schools. This project provides educational materials and technology to support learning more about and strengthen their understanding and their relationship to food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH). The specific objective would be to create a Stem ecosystem that advances scientific learning and thinking. The project is designed to pair youth and train teachers by allowing them access to UVI youth and researchers with experience in each of the subject matter areas so that teachers in the USVI participating in the program can not only benefit from the training, materials, and supplies provided but also share it through video, audio and PowerPoint animations with others to create a stronger near to peer STEM pathway that leads to higher education in the territory. We provided GoPro's, and video script writing training as well as STEM education kits and training on how to use them.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: VI DPNR annual Drinking Water Summit; STT, USVI, Nov 2023
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: EPA R2, Science Consortium on Citizen Science; STT, USVI, Feb 2024 - virtual

Progress 09/01/19 to 08/13/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is at-risk college, junior high, and high school youth. The goal of this pilot program is to create a STEM ecosystem to prepare at-risk youth for college. This project has aided more than 500 youththrough STEM educaiton programing using the funding supported by this USDA NIFA DEG project. The focus of the target audience has been to include high and junior schoolage youth to be paired in part with college-age youth from UVI to create a pipeline for higher education in STEM and expose them to STEM-based careers and vocations including advanced degrees and emerging science careers. We have had some many wonderful outcomes. The target audience of the pilot project is specifically focused on disadvantaged, low resource, at-risk youth who may not consider science careers. The audience was determined by asking educators how to better engage youth in science and ways to increase awareness in water conservation and resources including water and soil quality and to help rebuild a battered workforce post-storms. Changes/Problems:Stem Amabassadors was a wonderful project but it was hard as the timing of the storms and once back in the groove of life - COVID hit so it was a double gut punch but we previaled. COVID-19 was difficult it was even harder rebuilding efforts from the devastation caused by two Category 5 hurricanes. We did prevail and are pleased with the outcomes despite difficulties faced due to COVID-19 which hampered in-person lessons in the beginning and activities as well as training. We switched to Zoom but due to some connectivity issues, we are still working out the bumps of that as well. Now everyone can Zoom, Teams and the likes but the net is really slow since we lost ATT and our system is being upgraded which means we have even less connectivity. The problems encountered this year and every year are still most certainly related to the previous storms of 2017 as rebuilding is still, at this time, ongoing and it is SLOWWWWW. The two CAT 5 storms of 2017 destroyed many school campuses and much of the science and technology-related equipment in the systems, which created a greater need for programs like this and what we saw --is that if we had funding that was more readily available for STEM and pathways and not just related to ag but to all stem fields - it might help as youth today have little to no idea what they want to do so the hands the hands on tools are a winner as far as engaging them and getting them to see that ag can be intersting, and in mnay ways kinda cool, as long as you know that technology and farming go hand in hand. Certainly with more funding we could have aided more people and youth but I am proud of what we did, the patience USDA NIFA showed and that the team at USDA stuck with me and helped me get over the finish line. Insular is had and with inflation and the shipping delays, it's a lot harder but with a good team, a wonderful project and our awesome NPL's at USDA -- it made all the differnce in our little corner of the world - the USVI! So while I'd love to ask for more and get it I realize the funds are vital for every low resource community and I just want to thank you for believing in us and funding us!! There are many things to be thankful for but mostly I am most thankful for your partnership. Lastly, please note, that programs such as SAP that are hands-on are not only needed but necessary. Due to that, there is a greater need that far exceeds the SAP project team's funding and overall ability to serve all those who are interested in and deserving of taking part in this project. Certainly, the need for such programs outweighs funding and staffing capabilities and in light of COVID-19 that need could be tripled and still might not be enough to meet the demand sought during such distressing times in education. With that in mind, the project cannot accommodate all those youth and teachers seeking access to the project and that is difficult as all of the at-risk youth in the USVI should have and desperately need to have access to state-of-the-art technology and innovation available through SAP and at UVI so that there is a direct and clear pathway to UVI's STEM programs which are ever evolving due to new and emerging careers and degree programs at the university including the new agriculture program which was successfully launched in the Fall of 2020. One way the project team addressed the need for increased access to SAP was to create a STEM pathway tour with college youth in our program and high school youth who are not in the program which allowed them to get a glimpse of the project and activities to further leverage it to address this problem. Ultimately, it served to allow access to more youth which illustrates that there is a greater need for programs such as SAP and with that the need for continuous and ongoing funds to conduct it. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We had fun but ti was a bit messy andw did get in some troupbe with elctrical power outages. 1-The STEM trainings included: 2-Soil quality 3-Physics lessons with light (hair/dna) 4-Stawberry DNA (lab experiment) 5-Water Quality (ph, bacterial, salinity, etc.) 6-Egg drop ( lessons on gravity) 7-Building filtration system using sand, charcoal and litre bottles 8-Safety in the classroom when coducting science expereiments 9-Plagerism and why we don't do it 10-Ethics in Reasearch As you can see we did alot - we held trainings on water and soil quality, did field work, shared how to collect data and brought educators and interns along with HS youth in the labs for activities that were fun, engaging, and hands-on to give both teachers and youth an idea of what it's like to work with us, in our labs to conduct research to build stronger ties to educators needs in the classroom to leverage the NGSS for advance youth engagement. Student and teacher training in kits was conducted at UVI and in the classrooms. We also used many training tools in physics and provided field trips to youth to UVI to meet with and talk to students, take part in mini-classes in climate, chemistry and physics. The funding from USDA NIFA helps so much- the teachers love it as they get supplies and tools plus in-class support and training!!The WQ and soil kits are also used to show what our soil is and how we must work to limit erosion and conserve water. They also help in that they show ways that kits and technology can be used in ag and benefit our community. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have done many Youtube videos, which we share with the classes and we also do many career PPs where we create short videos and insert them in the PP's so the youth can see what we do and how our community works together. We also have done a few interviews with schools and students across the US so we can Zoom into classes and share about engineering and technology. This is a fun way to show which types of tools and tech are used in ag and water collection. We also have a large number of training PPs we use for everything from soil and water quality to filtration use so we can extend learning to our senior and broader community. We are creating new ones now so we can keep the stream of learning going. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is our last year and we will be closing the contract - sadly, mI loved this project!! This was my first big project and so she's a very special project to me!!! I will miss this project so I may need to write another DEG or AFRI to continue our efforts as this was a fun way to get youth in STT, STX, and STJ to work and collaborate as teams which to be honest was the most exciting part of this and enjoyable for the educators, collaborators, and youth!!! I think the thing about this project that makes my heart sing is that youth you are convinced will never love science and STEM - really just need tools, people who care and a place where they can learn and we did that with the vital funds acquired from the amazing USDA NIFA team we rely on who share our hopes for youth here and who when the going gets tough - I can call and they help to lift my project and community from the abyss of constant power outages, internet outages, natural disasters and the likes to remind us all that while bad things happen - good things and good people always prevail!! Thank you USDA NIFA for teaching us that and for having our backs and for believing in the people of the VI!!

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The goal of SAP bridges the team of UVI CES researchers and their previous projects and dovetails them into one project that not only helps youth in college learn about mentoring their peers but also offers them a chance to mentor a high school youth and lend a hand to help them get into college. This project was an amazing opportunity for youth and educators as the pilot project allowed researchers to be involved with territory youth in real time while engaging them in research and Citizen Science projects they are doing or have recently completed. The program also included a developmental evaluation conducted by Dr. Caryl Johnson, UVICES USDA supported Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program supervisor, and she helped researchers in STEM to connect their efforts directly to food, agriculture, weather and climate and its impact to community health. The developmental evaluation process is and was used as designed which was to be very fluid and will be conducted much like research and development in business so the project may be modified to achieve maximum outcomes. This project also relates to previous WRRI proposals and long-term research planning goals in that Ms. Chanes, Dr Latesky and Dr. Morris have or currently are conducting which involved the installation of weather stations on the island of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix which support the university's newly minted Physics degree which has just begun to be offered at the UVI. Pairing the STEM Amabassadors with PHYSICS allowed us to create opporutnites for youth to lern about engineering in ag and infrastruure in our community and allowed opportunities for youth to presnet to NASA. Through this effort and research, these weather stations are used to look at weather patterns around the territory and help researchers to predict drought patterns and assist USDA with the ongoing Drought Monitoring program that Dr. Morris is working to use station data for management from the Etelman Astronomical Observatory at UVI. Youth engagement in drought monitoring is a long-term plan of UVI and UDSA, Office of Chief Economist to ensure proper data collection for use when forecasting drought and precipitation. Becasue of this work we accomplished- 1-Getting on the USDM map 2-Leveraging that map to get on the USDM Prediciton Outlook Map (forecast) So, now, our new presindet is here and UVI's long term strategic plan requires student actively participate in vital research that benefits the community while also engages them in science- based activities so we are wrokign to work on another project to advance the lessons learned here. SAP was amazing as it included technology and blends that with hands on demonstrations, video training and hands on teacher and research interactions paired with community engagement activities that strengthen and promote awareness of FANH territory wide. SAP supports one of UVI's direct goals in the strategic plan which is to offer a new science-based degree which has been recently offered in physics and teh SOA. SAP helped youth learn that ag and technology go hand in hand and we supported that by introducing it to high school youth and featuring it at assemblies as part of the closing ceremonies at the end of each year. Our last event online had more than 50,000 hits which is more than half of the public community of the USVI. We are very proud and excited to continue our momentum by applying for another project using similar tools to aid our youth advacne in STEM!! Over the five years, we did so much. The storms of 2017 have left many schools in tatters and teachers without much-needed hands-on materials and supplies to teach or advance basic STEM programs including math, chemistry, physical science, and physics, and limit their ability to offer state-of-the-art technology in the classroom. This project aided both educators with training an kits and students who benefited from having more hands-on activities related to NGSS. chemistry kits in food safety and PH have been so exciting to take to classes and demos for the youth. They then could communicate their findings in their classes and with other student scientists. We made little mini-commercials to share what we learned. A hilarious, fun, and exceptionally entertaining way to engage youth in STEM by using scientific communication as a way to share our work in the schools. This project has provided more than 50 educators with educational materials and technology to support learning more about and strengthen their understanding and their relationship to food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH). The specific objective was to create a Stem ecosystem that advances scientific learning and thinking. The project is designed to pair youth and train teachers by allowing them access to UVI youth and researchers with experience in each of the subject matter areas so that teachers in the USVI participating in the program can not only benefit from the training, materials, and supplies provided but also share it through video, audio and PowerPoint animations with others to create a stronger near to peer STEM pathway that leads to higher education in the territory. We provided GoPro's, and video script writing training as well as STEM education kits and training on how to use them. While the go-pro's died ( tech equipment lasts approx 3 years and then just dies) we had fun and we did a lot of fun things including water quality, lab traiing for teahcers, community groups and students in HS and JHS which was so fun and becasue it we now offer field trips with labs as away to encaurge educators to join us here for tours and to share with youth how much fun STEM can be at UVI.

Publications

• Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Nasa Annual Outreach event; Addelita Cancryn JHS STEM education presentations via video.
• Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Nasa Annual Outreach event; Giftt Hill School STEM education presentations via video.
• Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Nasa Annual Outreach event; All Saints School STEM education presentations via video.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Annual UVI Health and Climate Summit; VIMSIA Stem Education in the USVI; St Thomas, USVI
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: 2023 Annual UVI Health and Climate Summit; Stem Education in the USVI; St Thomas, USVI
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: 2022 Annual UVI Health and Climate Summit; Stem Education in the USVI; St Thomas, USVI
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: 2021 Annual UVI Health and Climate Summit; Stem Education in the USVI; St Thomas, USVI

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The targeted audience of SAP provided more than 100low-resource youth in the USVI an opportunity to learn about agriculture and expand their awareness of food security and water scarcity in the USVI. The project has served more than 200 youth this past year and is designed as aSTEM ecosystem to prepare youth for college. It serves as a way forhigh and junior school-age youthto create a pipeline for higher education in STEM and expose them to STEM-based careers and vocations including advanced degrees, and science careers and increase awareness in water conservation and resources including water and soil quality to help rebuild a battered workforce post storms and to promote a global, high-quality scientific workforce in the USVI to benefit the public at large. The project leverages Next Generation of STEM Standards (NGSS) in science and math, which are the USVI Department of Education territorial standards for science to make science fun, and engaging. The storms have still left many schools and teachers without much-needed hands-on materials and supplies to teach or advance basic STEM programs including math, chemistry, and physical science as well as physics and limit their ability to offer state-of-the-art technology in the classroom. This projectprovides educational materials and technology to support learning more about and strengthen their understanding and their relationship to food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH). The specific objective would be to create a Stem ecosystem that advances scientific learning and thinking. The project is designed to pair youth and train teachers by allowing them access to UVI youth and researchers with experience in each of the subject matter areas so that teachers in the USVI participating in the program can not only benefit from the training, materials, and supplies provided but also share it through video, audio and PowerPoint animations with others to create a stronger near to peer STEM pathway that leads to higher education in the territory. Changes/Problems:The major problem with this project besides the rebuild post storms is that we have had COVID and the lag due to the supply chain has been a nightmare since we have been back to normal activities. Buying Stem kits and getting any type of tech product has been difficult due to the fact that we are in Latin America versus the US market so our supplies take longer to get and are of a lesser quality which makes trying to do this during a pandemic and post it which the inflation rates have been hard-hitting, In the USVI, we have also had a high turn over post storms but add in COVID and staffing is at an all-time low so administrative support, procurements and in general folks fleeing has been difficult coupled with overall morale and we have had a hard time rebuilding and redirecting post-COVID. I'm sure the states are similar but if you are on a small set of islands it's far more impactful as we need support and small grants without administrative support make for someone such as myself doing the job of five people while still carrying out all of the out all the project responsibilities. professors are fleeing, CES is limited with no succession plan and so we are just doing our best to get by. hard hitting areas in staffing are in support areas as there is no shortage of high-level team leads which are nice but don't help us on the ground. When embarking on extension-basedprojects based on outreach it takes time and the fact that people are leaving in droves makes that part even harder. I have hit recruitment hard and am working to rebuild teams and bring in new teachers and community leaders for the benefit of the youth who access the program. I am re-energized and I will succeed as our community deserves it-- as do I. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Teacher training hasbeen conducted on stem kits that include water and soil. Also, teachers shared their lesson plans in Math and science as a way to leverage the NGSS and help them to use the kits in class to make learning more fun, interactive and enjoyable. Water quality test training has been conducted at UVI for teachers and the community at large who want to learn more about how to keep cisterns clean and share ways to conserve water in homes and businesses. Youth have been trained to share Stem kits in class to act as peer mentors including engineering and robotickits. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Scientific Messaging and communicationhave been a very big part of the project and includethe following: The Cancryn video has been widelydisseminated and we are working on a careers video of locals who work in agencies that support ag, natural resources, and conservation. Students have presented in class and on TEAMS to share their work with one another. Five schools have showcased their work in assemblies that focus on STEM in community, resources, and in disaster preparedness. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?If the NCE is completed, I plan to do more videos with the youth spotlighting careers and their view of themselves as scientists. I also plan to procure and train teachers on the following: Soil testing to promote good soil health Water quality for pH to promote cistern health. PowerPoint presentationsin the classroom for youth (five slide deck projects) Procure more supplies to build bridges such as spaghetti, popsiclesticks, etc., to advance pre-engineering in the classroom Bring in another round of speakers for youth on careers in science and ag

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Items accomplished in the project include two teacher trainings on water quality, new STEM kits provided for bridge building, water testing for ph and turbidity, and video creation by a group of junior high youth. Materials and supplies for engineering and physics-based programs have been given to 6-12th grade teachers at five schools across theUSVI. More teachers have benefited in the k-6 using a water-focused coloring bookcreated from a previous project with UPR Mayaguez which is a great and useful tool in youth understanding the water cycle. The program has hosted career-based seminars for youth k-12th and has provided college youth with field work including working with farmers to address watersources and soil health. The youth have engaged in testing, and sharing outcomes of their water-connected research and lab activities so as to learn about scientific messaging. They have also worked on sharing their work with their classmates and others in the school not involved in the program. They have learned about drought-tolerant food products, planting, and ways to conserve water and energy. Teachers have been paired with others to peer mentor and share resources including supplies provided for the classroom in the program which leveraged team teaching in Science, Math, and English so that we can advance learning using hands-on tools to make more of the activities. Students have been recruited for summer programs at UVI including the marine and ag discovery programs and college-level youth have been offered internships and learning opportunities in the field working with farmers. Youth have been introduced to drones and have created films for use in outreach events to leverage scientific messaging.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Stem Ambasadors and WQ in the USVI; EPA Region 2; Zoom event
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: PR/USVI Science Consortium Quarterly Meeting; Stem Ambassadors and the Stem Pipeline

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:In spite of COVID during this project, more than 200 at-risk youth were exposed to this program from the USVI. They are home school, public, private, and parochial school youth who are disadvantaged and live in small rural communities. Most families live at or just above poverty and because the islands are far from the continental US, it is vital that program such as this exceeds the goals and work to ensure that youth have access to state-of-the-art technology and tools that can aid them as they begin to prepare for the college pathway to UVI or other universities of higher education. The 200 youth are interested in STEMbut not focused on any one particular area and so the idea is to expose them to many projects that are hands-on so they can see how STEM is involved in a variety of tasks and how they can get involved in not only science education to increase literacy but also how it helps solve real-worldproblems. These youth took in discussions with teachers, and career professionals in STEM to see what their interests were before and after the program;many who were not interested in hard sciences at the end of the program were interested in things like engineering, environmental science, and chemistry areas they had no interest in before the program, which was exciting. Teachers reported a larger engagement around areas of computer science and engineering as well as biology, chemistry, and technology in general. Changes/Problems:Demand outweighed funding and more teachers wanted tools and training but the timing due to COVID and all of the stop/starts were painful for all. The problems related to the hands-on part we multiplied by the constant opening and closures of schools across the territory due to the pandemic. The problems with the endemic won't bemuch easier because we still have closings and we still have vaccine requirements and it's a lot to juggle with the everyday dealing of being small islands separated by bodies of water. I feel as though in many ways I failed. I gave teachers kits to give to youth and they were torn apart by younger youth who was at home so that did not work at all. But videos worked great so we did a lot of YouTube training and ways to ponder ideas by incubating and discussing the goals of the project and ways to apply them post COVID. Classroom tools are vital but training is needed so the teacherscan deploy the tools. All in all, we did well but we've never had a pandemic let alone an endemic in my lifetime so I feel as though we kept doing what we thought was working only to get redirected due to the changes of the pandemic and endemic. Mostwere overjoyedto have something to do but at first, while dealing with the virus it was all we could do to get speakers so we did that. Sometimes, taking a step back means HUGE and important leapforward. Our NASA outreach event was experienced by more than 3000 teachers and students across the USVI in part because of this grant and the youth in it werefeatured in the program and were first to ask questions of our speakers so it was a nice recovery to a long hard year and a half. Now, there's no way to go but up and this program is what I'm leaning into to get the youth engaged in science and the future of FANH and food security across the USVI. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students and teachers were trained in kits that were purchased for them to use in class. These were supposed to be used as jumping-off points for sea-perch which is an engineering program here at the public/private school level but due to COVID that was deferred until the schools are back in full swing, They were closed most of the year and may open to upper grades but currently, only K-3 is in school. Teachers were invited to a training on water quality test kits and they were able to work in teams to do so. The soil testing kits were distributed, but the training was held off as COVID took hold of the US government's sheltering-in-place orders. While the first year was hard the second was harder as we were all tired and the idea of long-term online lessons was draining for all. However,we accomplished a lot more than I thought once we got online tools such as TEAMS and Zoom and integrated them so we could actually mirror them to allow more cross-discipline learning. Overall, the teachers love it and the youth look forward to it just hoping we can open back up so they can come and get trained in the UVI lab for the fall of 2022 which due to the pandemic we were able to actually online with EPA in that time frame. It was not as good as in-person but certainly was great as an option to meet the goals of the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The first year was really hard trying to acclimate. This year we have done manyZoom/Teams outreach with others who were not in the program to increase the idea of community knowledge of the science of stem careers beyond our territory. Also, this has been somewhat helpful and to some degree challenging because we normally have Big Productions where they share and present to one another. Due to limited meeting space and COVID protocols, it was harder than I could have imagined but we did some online sessions as career outreach which was fun and youth could share and learn from those in the fields of interest. But it was a bit harder this year due to connectivity and computer issues so we did more small group shares and less-large scale shares to create a place of learning that was focused on the team-building processes designed in the project without taking away from thestress added due to the impacts ofCOVID.COVID in year one and year two just killed us but it also gave us opportunities to focus on the things that matter so it was certainly a lesson in quality versus quantity due to the sheltering in place orders and switching back and further from online to in-person and back again which in the end made it much more intimate and certainly more fun! The youth were able to talk and dialogue more frequently and got to know one another a little bit better than had we not had this program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I put in for NCE as I want to complete the real Big production and allow the youth to show what they learned and showcase their work in front of professionals in areas they would like to pursue as far as higher education pathways and career paths. I also plan to do much more outreach on careers, get ready for the school to open in August, if the endemicisn't too bad --also get ready for the NASA event where they talk about careers and internships that STEMdegree youth can pursue. I'm going to get back to basics with teachers and provide more tools, and trainingand just let the program flow as we deal withthe new and emerging variants and our new normal as we move from pandemic to endemic which seems to be developing but not over yet.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? UVI Students helped put up rain gauges across the USVI, they also looked at data related to water quality and also weather patterns including precipitation. They also took part in using VR goggles to see how they can be used in classrooms across the USVI. In addition, they were exposed (before COVID) to tours of the UVI observatory which showcases our robotic telescope fondly known as Verti. They tested the water, teachers were trained in new stem tools such as chemistry and physics kitsfor the teacher to use in the classroom. The biggest thing they did for STEM careers was to have more than 10 different professionals in their classrooms virtually to share their careers and how they got there. Youth need to see themselves in careers and college-level programs that allow them to explore their areas of interest. 2020-2021 has been hard as we were still in lockdown and when we came out numbers went up so school closures were often and impacted the project goals as far as overall activities. Teachers were tired, overwhelmed and working constantly to catch up which meant that time in classes with students was limited due to the pandemic. Thus we offered career development speakers from STEM fields to expose them to the workforce and higher education opportunities.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2021 Citation: UVI Epscor Annual Conference-2021
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: UVI Rotary virtual Conference 2021

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience: The project is designed to serve underrepresented youth in public, private, parochial, and home schoolsin the USVI. The goal has been to pair youth and train teachers by allowing them access to UVI youth and researchers with experience in each of the subject matter areas so that teachers in the USVI participating in the program can not only benefit from the training, materials, and supplies provided but also share through video, audio and PowerPoint animations their training with others to create a stronger near-to-peer STEM pathway that leads to higher education in the territory. SAP introduced more than 100 youth, over two years, in the junior and high school systems of public, private, and parochial as well as home school, to address issues surrounding agriculture, food safety, natural resources, water, and soil quality. SAP also introduced landscape conservation practices and why they are necessary, created a system for collecting crowd-sourced data (data collected by the public through a web-mapping interface) on the status of their own personal watersheds by introducing climate data algorithms of the weather station network previously set up and subsequently destroyed by the storms. The weather station network is now being rebuilt in the territory by UVI with youth who are currently students at the St. Thomas Campus. Five stations are being placed back online due to this effort at this time. This year much was conducted online due to COVID-19 which impacted ourin-person delivery of training for youth and teachers. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 was a major barrier. We had only one key event which was the tour of UVI for 200 local high school youth interested in STEM degrees, thankfully it was early in February of 2020 before we shut down in March, and it's been closed tight since so that was a good way to engage youth prior to sheltering in place. It took a lot but thankfully our team was able to pivot and with virtual programming, we did some outreach events to aid teachers and students but nothing like what we could have conducted if we were not sheltering in place and youth were in fact in class. However, we are ready to and help these students get great access to ideas that they can pursue in STEM as far as careers as they plan for the higher education pathway. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We did an introduction to robotics which was conducted by one of our long-term teachers from a public high school. More than 10 educators participated. It was to support SEAPerch and also an introduction to coding, the lessons focused on what students could do as a team. This was also a good way to try to integrate engineering processes and lessons so the youth could have hands-on learning using these fun, integrated tools and kits to build and design their vessels. What was nice in this process was new teachers were paired with senior teachers who helped them along. This is something we plan to do again, but due to COVID-19, we had a bit of a problem as most began to shelter in place. The teachers did use the training in online lessons but it was difficult as the youth could not work in groups to build or compete. With that said we did buy kits for them to use and are now sending teachers to Engineering USA virtual conference and training to get more support in new areas that they may be interested in, to help them develop as teachers. This would be such a high-impact component if we can get back into the classrooms in the Fall of 2021. Due to these setbacks, we are asking for aNCE to complete this as the youth are very invested in the program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, we did social media posting, and shared with community groups (Rotary) and at USDA our accomplishments but due to COVID-19 most were social media posting. Once COVID-19 protocols end this year, we will move on to more branding for the program and the teachers. We did a video on soil testing which we shared with local farmers and also gave them a few kits to sample. We also had youth share with farmers water quality tips and asked that they work with them in the labs once the university opens back up in the fall of 2021. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to hit the ground running post-COVID-19. This grant is a fun-filled activity-driven event project that will do the following in the next year: -NASA outreach event for all schools across the USVI (100 youth) -Virtual career day in STEM w/ 10-20 classes in public, private and parochial, and home school(all grades). -Teacher training for stem activities tied to NGSS. This year, the youth will be able to enjoy learning, teaming, and sharing what they have learned and what their next steps in higher education may look like with planning from this grant-funded project.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? There have been many successes in the project. Many students visited online with engineers, NASA scientists, pilots, and other technical teams who introduced them to careers in STEM. Just before COVID-19 we had a high schoolgroup of 200 students in the program who were graduating seniors. They toured UVI and took part in seeing the campus, physics lab, took part in VR goggle lessons in astronomy, met faculty and staff, and also had the opportunity to meet with professors in the College of Science and Math. The 200 youth were seniors from local public high schools and theyalso took part in a chemistry activity which included a lab activity that taught them about understanding the DNA of a strawberry.Teachers were given access to free training tools from NASA to use in their classrooms. Most received kits of their choice to use in class to include physics kits, chemistry kits, and also soil testing kits which were really successful and used in classes across the territory. The kits helped but due to COVID-19 hands-on interaction for all was limited beyond March 2020 due to the pandemic.

Publications

• Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: USDA NIFA DEG Meeting/ project overview

Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is at-risk college, junior high, and high school youth. The goal of this pilot program is to create a STEM ecosystem to prepare at-risk youth for college. The focus of the target audience has been to include high and junior school-ageyouth to be paired in part with college-age youth from UVI to create a pipeline for higher education in STEM and expose them to STEM-based careers and vocations including advanced degrees and emerging science careers. The target audience of the pilot project is specifically focused on at-risk youth who may not consider science careers toincrease awareness in water conservation and resources including water and soil qualityand to help rebuild a battered workforce post-storms. The goal of having at-risk youth is to promote a global, high-quality scientific workforce, so the pilot program includes guest speakers and outside experts who have been included so youth can have direct interaction with them. In the USVI, good, high paying jobs are hard to come by but are needed to benefit the public at large. In doing so, this program seeks to engage youth who are at risk to have a chance to participate, regardless of their grades, to stimulate interest in science fields and advance exposure to science projects and experiments using hands-on lessons in STEM so they may pursue a career in science and/or STEM. This program also seeks to leveragethe model educational program that follows The Next Generation of STEM Standards (NGSS), which are the USVI Department of Education territorial standards for science, and creates an exciting opportunity for at-risk youth to learn about STEM careers in a fun, interactive way that at-risk youth often don't have exposure to in the USVI. The storms of 2017 left many schools and teachers without much-needed hands-on materials and supplies to teach or advance basic STEM programs including math, chemistry, and physical science as well as physics. This limits their ability to offer state-of-the-art technology in the classroom. STEM Ambassadors program has offered at-risk youth these tools, including exposure to Virtual Reality in science which provides teachers, serving the most vulnerable population, with creative science components that can lead to an advanced interest in science and STEM in and outside of school. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 was difficult it was even harder in the midst of rebuilding efforts from the devastation caused by two Category 5 hurricanes. We did in fact prevail and are pleased with the outcomes despite difficulties faced due to COVID-19 which hampered in-person lessons and activities as well as training. Weswitched to Zoombut due to some connectivity issues, we are still working out the bumps of that as well. The problems encountered this year were most certainly related to the previous storms of 2017 as rebuilding is still, at this time, ongoing. The two CAT 5 storms of 2017 destroyed many school campuses and much of the science and technology-related equipment in the systems, which created a greater need for programs such as SAP that are hands-on. Due to that, there is a greater need that far exceeds the SAP project team's funding and overall ability to serve all those who are interested in and deserving of taking part in this project. Certainly, the need for such programs outweighs funding and staffing capabilities and in light of COVID-19 that need could be tripled and still might not be enough to meet the demand sought during such distressing times in education. With that in mind, the project cannot accommodate all those youth and teachers seeking access to the project and that is difficult as all of the at-risk youth in the USVI should have and desperately need to have access to state of the art technology and innovation available through SAP and at UVI so that there is a direct and clear pathway to UVI's STEM programs which are ever-evolving due to new and emerging careers and degree programs at the university including the new agriculture program which was successfully launched in the Fall of 2020. One way the project team addressed the need for increased access to SAP was to create a STEM pathway tour with college youth in our program and high school youth who are not in the program which allowed them to get a glimpse of the project and activities to further leverage it to address this problem. Ultimately, it served to allow access to more youth which illustrates that there is a greater need for programs such as SAP and with that the need for continuous and ongoing funds to conduct it. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Teachers were offered training in new Carolina soil test kits as well as newly introduced water quality testing kits beyond the previous test strips. Also, as part of a one-day high school activity, 150 high school youth who are not in the program were exposed to some of the things the program participants take part in. These youth were brought into the UVI Chemistry lab and took part in DNA extraction from strawberries and also toured the campus. On that tour they were also, as part of the SAP outreach component and to outreach to even more youth in the USVI, they were exposed to the UVI Innovation Lab which includes the use of VR Google glasses to provide exposure to hands-on science activities in the Star Lab which is housed in the UVI campus library on St Thomas. Also, more than 150 youth were invited to tour UVI and they also conducted a hands-on science experiment in the UVI lab with their teachers and UVI faculty as a way to create an outreach pathway to UVI's science programs. Also, 150 other youth were trained in the use of a porosity and drainage kit and took part in a groundwater simulation and hydrology experiment in the lab to learn about filtration. Teachers were trained to make and use a water filter using a soda bottle, charcoal, sand, and rocks as well as 15 of whom were given a plastic reusable water filtration demonstration tool to use in class to teach water quality and filtration in the classroom. Also, home school youth in St Thomas went to Ivanna Eudora Kean High School on St Thomas and did a two-daysession, teaching youth there in STEM classes about robotics and how to use Leggo Mindstorm kits. This was an exciting finish to the year which since COVID-19 has changed our ability to do the in-class session (these were hands-on activities done pre-COVID-19); also, UVI youth were further exposed to VR lessons in the Innovation lab through equipment purchased by this grant and used for not only public nights by the Physics program but also by youth exposed to STEM Ambassadors invited to take part in such activities. Also, youth at the Children's Museum on St Thomas used and took part in STEM education through the use of the VR Goggles purchased on this grant. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?SAP created opportunities for social media posts and videos but word of mouth was the big winner. Facebook posts on Gardening on the Rock and other social media locations helped brand the program. UVI students and youth in the community accessed new innovative technology including the use of Google Expedition Virtual Reality tools to travel to outer space, see water up close and take journeys through science guided by UVI physics staff and youth who are in Math and Science degree programs at UVI. The best exposure came from word of mouth as the VR tools which were used in conjunction with 3D cameras whereby youth on different islands experienced lessons and demonstration in real-time by pairing them with the Google Expedition classroom sets. This was discussed and shared with others who now want to take part in the program. Besides, teachers were provided video cameras, all of which seemed to be exciting for youth as they were happy to learn about and be exposed to state of the art technology which they reportedly shared with teachers and others who did not have access to such a tool in or out of the classroom which provided a better and more immediate exposure of program technology and tools which provided valuable feedback to SAP project team leads. The PI also gave a presentation to the ISU Earth Program about STEM education and pathways in the USVI for further collaboration. The PI also took part in a variety of roundtable discussions with the Community Foundation of the VI to help them offer and determine locations and teachers for the submission of and award of mini-grants to support STEM in the classroom. Lastly, 300 pre and post-test in STEM career pathways were shared with the broader UVI community as far as outcomes and degree areas of interest so they could recruit for incoming youth into these degree areas,including data science and physics both of which are new degrees at UVI. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Due to COVID-19,participant feedback onSAP will be used toprovide further access to more VR and related technology and the project team will work to create more ZOOM sessions and video lessons so others can take part in it due to continued social distancing measures ongoing at this time. In the next year, youth will also be exposed to STEM career pathways through this effort as they will also learn to calibrate and maintain the weather stations through their hands-on experience working with engineers and researchers supporting this effort. New weather stationparts and manual rain gauges were ordered and 16 added to the network to increase data collection and SAP youth will befurther exposed to and involved in this and discussions with the researchers involved. A data-sharing arrangement with the USVI Department of Agriculture (VIDA) and USDA Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) along with the National Parks System in St Croix will beadding to existing data currently being collected in the USVI. All of these will be used fordata shared for drought and water management predictions while National Park in St John will use it to monitor flooding and coral reef impacts. Also, that data will be shared with a Coral Bay NGO which will also use it for flooding prediction and monitoring purposes. Youth and educators will create videos using technology and tools to keep them excited and interested in STEM including video cameras (Go Pro) and editing software to create fun, interactive short films to be shared with program collaborators. SAP will further link to EPA Citizen Science Water Quality programs across the country and the equipment loaner program sponsored by EPA at UVI for water quality testing and evaluation. Also, the project team leads will work with EPA to conduct 100 water tests for cisterns across the USVI to teach youth how different STEM career pathways link to climate change and resiliency. Lastly, 57 years' worth of rainfall data was located at the Frenchtown Museum, digitized, and shared with classes at local schools as well as with researchers at UVI and nationally. this has been presented to a variety of research teams from other federal agencies including NOAA, USDA, FSA,NWS, and more.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? SAP accomplished much of the year one goal including introducing more than 75youth in the junior and high school systems of public, private, and parochial as well as home school, to address issues surrounding agriculture, food safety, natural resources, water, and soil quality. SAP also introduced landscape conservation practices including water and soil quality to at-risk youth in the program to create good environmental stewards of the territory. They met with physics professors and private researchers, as well as industry experts, and learned why they are needed, learned about data collection on the status of their own personal watersheds by introducing climate data algorithms of the weather station network previously set up, and subsequently destroyed by the storms. The weather station network is now being rebuilt in the territory by UVI with youth and researchers who are currently students at the St. Thomas campus. They were paired with participants from St. John and St. Croix who are taking science classes and participating in the program to learn to do maintenance checks of batteries, daily and weekly readings, and learn about and understand how to collect data from them. These activities paired with teacher training allowed for more youth to be exposed to areas of research in STEM which was shared with youth, so they may improve the quality of their own lives immediately by understanding environmental impacts and the role STEM careers have while taking part in science education that they can then consider as they go on in their higher education journey. Interns of the SAP were working on documenting long-term historical data which was shared with youth and sent on to USDA to be used by other researchers and the National Drought Monitors who also access and use this data for climate modeling. The data represents historical records from 1917 to 1974. Interns also created a draft of a coloring and activity book on STEM careers using tropical fruit as characters to explain careers in STEM. This final draft is being completedin four languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and French which are the common languages in the USVI.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: UVI Iowa State Earth Program Partner Meeting; USVI; Citizen Science: Water Quality and Drought in the USVI.