Vols4STEM Project

The Knoxville Chamber, Knox County Schools, and the Knoxville chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers have started a website called Vols4STEM.org to act as a clearinghouse to link science and engineering professionals with students and educators. The mission of Vols4STEM is to be an instrument to encourage and facilitate the STEM Professional Community of Knox Area (Knox County and adjoining counties), particularly its STEM societies and their members, encouaging more involvement, as volunteers, in STEM educational outreach activities to benefit area youth.

Below is a list of items, a "wish list" that Knox County teachers came up with when asked how they saw Vols4STEM volunteers helping them. You might consider filling out the Volunteer Form expressing an interest in volunteering for one of these activities. Please list IEEE as the organization you support. Teachers have direct access to the Vols4STEM volunteer database.

1. Visiting a classroom
2. Workshops or unscheduled in-service opportunities for teachers
3. Presenters at mini-conferences for teachers
4. Field trip opportunities - to see "science in action" and open possibilities for future careers, possibly even setting up something hands-on while on-site
5. Help with science clubs or teams (JETS, Olympiad, Lego League, etc.)
6. A class or project electronic "pen pal" that students can contact by email to ask questions
7. A collaborator to help teachers write problem-based scenarios, i.e., teachers can contact to say "I'm doing this topic and I need an example of how you actually use it in 'real life'" - this was a big request from several teachers
8. Judges for science fairs
9. Attending or presentiong at a Career Fair

If you volunteer for a K-12 STEM program, please log your hours at Million Hours Campaign. When you register, specify IEEE-USA as your society.