‘Out of the Blue’ features MTSU summer STEM Camp for high schoolers [+VIDEO]

Out of the Blue graphic featuring Heather Green discussing CBAS STEM Camp

Heather Green, Middle Tennessee State University MTeach program coordinator, discussed the activities in store for area youth at the upcoming College of Basic and Applied Sciences STEM Camp on this month’s “Out of the Blue” episode.

“It’s an opportunity for them (camp participants) to come and try out science and discover all that STEM has to offer and how the camp has grown,” said Green, in reference to technology, engineering and math to go along with science. “We’ve added about three times as many student slots as we had last year and we’ve added content areas. We not only have biology and chemistry, but we’ve added math, science education and engineering technology.”

Middle Tennessee State University Summer STEM Camp participants use a net to fish for darters in the Stones River at Walter Hill Dam in Murfreesboro in this July 2022 photo. About 30 rising high school sophomores and juniors attended the College of Basic and Applied Sciences camp featuring biology, chemistry and engineering technology. This year’s camp is open to rising ninth through 12th graders and will be held June 19-23, with registration closing May 15 or when all 90 spots are filled. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

Andrew Oppmann, vice president of marketing and communications — Andrew Oppmann

Heather Green, MTSU Teach — Heather Green

Green is featured in one of three segments on the April 2023 edition of the university’s TV magazine program, hosted by Andrew Oppmann, vice president for marketing and communications. Her segment is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGZSLcYQ760&t=2s.

Openings remain for the June 19-23 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) camp for students entering grades 9 through 12. The in-person camp will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Registration before April 15 will be $200 and include meals, activities, trips, supplies, T-shirt and more. After April 15, the fee will be $250.

The registration deadline is May 15. To sign up, visit the registration website at www.mtsu.edu/cbas/CBASSTEMSummercamp.php.

Green said MTSU faculty, staff and undergraduate and graduate students will be taking camp participants on field trips “to some of the facilities outside of campus — the airport, Creamery, local streams and possibly the dairy farm. … We’re going to get them doing hands-on activities in the labs, in the field, working with people like me who work as science educators, doing the things we would have them do as undergraduate or even as graduate students.”

While on campus, the campers will get to go to the Student Union game room, Campus Recreation Center facilities “and different chances to see different sides of campus.” With MTSU faculty and students, Green said the participants “will be able to talk to our students and find out what it’s like to be an MTSU student and interact with those professors.”

Green also discussed MTeach, the university’s math, science and agriculture secondary education minor for students majoring in a STEM area and plan to teach in Tennessee.

“The highlight of our program is early and often field experiences,” Green said. “We have them out in the classrooms teaching children from their very first class. … We teach through the inquiry method, so they’re getting the students to think through the science problems and think through the math and trying it out themselves so we’re not just standing there lecturing to them.”

“Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. Sundays and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play.

Find previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue/.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)