STEM Education for East Knoxville (SEEK) is an educational outreach program and research project that establishes sustainable, long-term partnerships between University of Tennessee (UT) instructors and students and East Knoxville educators, families, and children. The outcome of these partnerships are various informal STEM learning opportunities for children and families at schools and community centers in East Knoxville’s predominately Black and Latinx neighborhoods. All workshops are designed to respond to community-identified needs for STEM learning opportunities and are facilitated by qualified faculty, prospective teachers, and teachers.
SEEK targets elementary and middle school students (PreK-8) because interest in science and engineering develops early and participating in PreK-12 STEM education programs increases students’ interest in pursuing a career in STEM.
PI: Frances K. Harper
Collaborators:
- Joshua M. Rosenberg
- Fair Garden Preschool
- Sam E. Hill Primary School
- Dr. E.V. Davidson Community Center
- East TN Stem Hub
Research Assistants:
Current
- Sara Comperry
- Kay Howell
- Tabatha Rainwater
- Indrani Singh
Past
- Nicholas Kim
- Zachary Stumbo
- Sierra Womble
Funding:
Project funded in part by these offices/programs at University of Tennessee:
Family STEM Nights
For lesson plans created by prospective teachers, visit Community STEAM
Publications
Harper, F. K., Stumbo, Z., & Kim, N. (2020). When robots invade the neighborhood: Learning to teach PK-5 mathematics leveraging both technology and community knowledge. Accepted for Proceedings for the 31st annual conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (pp. 360-367). Online.
UPRiME Events
Thanks to Dr. Oyita Udiani for joining our second event to explore graph theory.
Math Playground
Lesson plans available at Community STEAM
solving world problems 