Hands-on community connections

To achieve our goal of connecting the VI community with the important research and community work being done under VI-EPSCoR, IL has been working hard to make an impact across 6 overarching goals. These goals include:

1. Increasing and sustaining the reach of the Informal Learning team throughout the Territory.

2. Diversifying the range of topics typically taught and presented in both informal and formal education and outreach initiatives.

3. Guiding k-12 URM students into the Geosciences and broader STEM pipeline to build a diverse STEM workforce.

4. Working toward becoming a hub of information and resources for STEM and environmental education, awareness and sustainability in largely underserved communities.

5. Building new, and improving-upon, existing connections and lines of communication to better reach and understand our target audiences.

6. Establishing self-sufficiency and innovation within the IL team and its efforts.

IL has reached over 4,000 Virgin Islands residents through k-12 STEM interventions, community engagement, product development and strong partnerships, since the beginning of the R2R project. This includes roughly 2,000 students in grades k-12, all from diverse social, ethnic and economic backgrounds.

Thanks to initiatives such as IL’s “Adopt A Classroom” and VIMAS’s “Water Heroes” and “Environmental Learning Outside the Classroom” programs, we have also established connections in private, parochial, and public schools across the Territory. This includes 5 schools on St. Thomas, the Gifft Hill School on St. John. We’ve also been focusing heavily on topics such as marine debris, water quality, watersheds, and shoreline protection across 7 St. Croix schools. Our efforts in innovating and rethinking the way that technology can be used within the Informal Learning space has greatly evolved throughout the course of this grant and has the potential to lead to some insightful publications in the very near future.

We’ve implemented the use of virtual/augmented reality, 3D printing (examples of this can also be found on the table in front of you), QR code technology, ROVs and various other tools such as sound buttons to help engage the more neurodivergent or sensory-focused members of our community; whose responses continue to drive our investment in these high impact tools. Through the work that we do with University Bound, and our support of the VIMAS-led Ocean Explorers programs, a total of 405 (80 JOE, 225 YOE, 100 UB) k-12 students across the region now have a better understanding of not only the importance of our natural resources and the amazing research that goes into studying and preserving them, but their connection to these resources as Virgin Islanders. This investment in University Bound, the Junior and Youth Ocean Explorer programs have positively influenced our participants' perception of STEM/STEAM fields and their right to take up space within them. One of the best examples of this impact lives with the now 85 YOE students who are now Open Water, Advanced Open Water (and even Dive Master) SCUBA certified and are far more equipped to enter a Geoscience-focused workforce.