Can a Shipping Container Increase Access to Hands-on STEM?
By Amanda Baker
Originally published by Scientific American
Designing STEM outreach programs for K-12 classrooms often becomes a balancing act between ambitious goals and limited resources. Scientific equipment is just one kind of resource, but one that is unavailable to many schools. Time is a less obvious resource, but time away from classroom curriculum is becoming increasingly hard for teachers to justify with their administrators. And personal access to relevant experts – face time with actual scientists – is a resource that many programs don’t even get to add to their wish lists.
With countless approaches being taken around the country, it should come only as a slight surprise that at least one group would get a shipping container, paint it yellow, fill it with lab equipment, and then send it on a cross-country tour staffed with volunteer scientists. That is exactly what the MilliporeSigma did this year with its Curiosity Cube.
