10 am Saturday, April 17

VSU Student Union

All participating students receive a $50 honorarium (Amazon gift card) for their contributions at the Jam and we will award $1000 in prizes! Join individually or with friends as a team!

Register now for the ERT in STEM Jam

What is ERT?

ERT is Emergency Remote Teaching. It's what happened last spring. While you were enjoying spring break, your professors were trying to figure out how to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities without having students together in a regular classroom or lab.

It was perfect, without any problems, right?

It wasn't? Well then, the ERT in STEM Project wants to hear from you. 

On Saturday, April 17, we will host an event that challenges you - VSU students - to imagine, create, and explore ways to teach STEM activities in an online or remote environment. You and your team will start with a STEM topic, decide the learning goal, design the activity, and present your new, original ERT in STEM activity at the end of the Jam.

Oh, don't worry. We'll make this worth your time. All participants who complete the jam will receive a $50 Amazon gift card. There will be meals, snacks, and prizes. Register here.

With support from the National Science Foundation, the ERT in STEM Project at VSU wants to know more about how well you learned (or didn't learn) by performing STEM activities outside of a regular classroom. We want to know your ideas for how to do ERT better.

What is a Jam?

A jam is a fun, competitive event with teams of students developing new ideas to solve a problem (and winning prizes). In this case, you'll develop a new way for students to learn a STEM topic without being together in a classroom or lab. It can be something totally different, a new combination of existing ideas, or a big improvement over the current way we do things. We challenge you to be creative while dealing with practical constraints (like it can't cost a million dollars).

Don't worry. We'll guide and encourage you along the way because creating an awesome idea isn't easy. It takes time, so we plan on you starting at 10 am and finishing around 6 pm. It's work, but it's fun work with other VSU students. Did I mention that participants receive $50 for completing the jam? And prizes.

When you're finished, you will have made a meaningful contribution to improving ERT for future students, been fed all day thanks to VSU Catering, earned a $50 honorarium (Amazon gift card) and possibly walk away with more prizes. We are limiting registration to 30 students so register now. Get your friends to register too so that you can form your own team!

Questions regarding the purpose or procedures of the research should be directed to Dr. Kurt Winkelmann at kwinkelmann@valdosta.edu. To qualify, participants must be VSU students, 18 years or older, and have enrolled in a VSU science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) course offered by the College of Science and Mathematics during spring or summer 2020. Selection of qualified participants is based on a first come, first served basis, up to a maximum of 30 participants.

What is the ERT in STEM Project?

The ERT in STEM Project team includes:

  • Dr. Kurt Winkelmann, Valdosta State University, Chemistry Professor and Department Head
  • Dr. Lorraine Ramirez-Villarin, University of North Georgia, Assistant Professor of Middle Grades, Secondary, & Science Education
  • Dr. Jungwoo Ryoo, Penn State - Altoona, Division Head, Business, Engineering, and Information Sciences and Technology and Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Dr. Lawrence Ragan, Chief Executive Officer at Ragan Education LLC

With funding from the National Science Foundation, we are investigating the future of innovative learning environments in college STEM classes. We originally focused on high-tech approaches to teaching and learning, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Our experiences last spring showed us that we need to understand how students and faculty navigate education using low-tech approaches also. That led us to redirecting our efforts towards emergency remote teaching of STEM subjects. Drs. Winkelmann and Ramirez-Villarin will be hosting the ERT in STEM Student Jam at VSU in April.