The University celebrated Mass STEM Week through a speaker series, collaborative educational sessions with students and teachers from Westfield’s Franklin Avenue Elementary School, and Westfield State student participation in Holyoke STEM Academy with the Holyoke Public Schools.
Westfield State collaborated with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Pioneer Valley STEM Network to sponsor a Virtual Speaker Series titled “What is your STEM story?”, featuring either professionals in or students pursuing STEM careers, with an event each day, Oct. 18-21. WSU alumnus Wayne Barnaby, a Ph.D. candidate at UMass Amherst was among the featured speakers.
On Oct. 20, Westfield State hosted teachers and 75 third- and fourth-grade students from Franklin Ave School to use the engineering design process to create their own water filter. Click here for WWLP-TV coverage of the visit.
On Oct. 21, University representatives participated in the Holyoke STEM Academy, including Biology Professors Jennifer Hanselman, Ph.D., and David Christensen, Ph.D., and senior biology majors Jean Ganek, Daniel Pellegrino, and Matthew Wandishion.
Dr. Hanselman visited Franklin Ave School on Oct. 21 to work with second graders to use the scientific process to test the strength of paper towels, followed by an Oct. 22 visit to facilitate the engineering design process and help first graders stop Olaf the snowman (from Disney’s motion picture Frozen) from melting.