The STEPs program is a K-12 science outreach program at Oregon State University which was developed and funded until August 2012, by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Its mission is to support and improve science, math, health, and engineering education for K-12 teachers and students throughout the state of Oregon. In partnership with OSU faculty, the STEPs program is supporting teachers by

  • Offering professional development workshops in partnership with OSU faculty, particularly in disciplines that are rapidly changing
  • Loaning classroom sets of equipment related to workshop topics
  • Locating professional scientists for consultation, equipment loans, field trips, and presentations

Number Club resources for elementary school teachers and students have been moved (July 2015)

OSU research faculty partners supporting STEPs outreach workshops and programs in 2014-2015:

Dan Arp, Dean Agricultural College and STEPs Director
Michael Freitag, Julie Greenwood, Colin Johnson,  and Ryan Mehl in Biochemistry-Biophysics;
Pallavi Dhagat, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Andreas Schmittner, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science
Weihong Qiu and Bo Sun, Physics
Pankaj Jaswal, Botany and Plant Pathology

Equipment Lending Library

Equipment sets for molecular biology, chemistry, renewable energy are available to Oregon teachers who have participated in STEPs teacher workshops or who have had appropriate training in using the equipment.

Contact Kari van Zee at vanzeek@science.oregonstate.edu  for more information.