Students get hands-on STEM experience through Education Resource Center at NASA IV&V

The Annual STEM Day in the Park was hosted by Fairmont State’s Education Resource Center at the NASA IV&V Facility October 17-18 for over 600 middle-school students from across the state at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center. 

Director Greg Blaney and other members of the senior leadership team taught students about the mission of NASA and the IV&V program. 

“Students were inspired to think like scientists while observing demonstrations of combustion research being conducted at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory from our keynote speaker and West Virginia native, Dr. Don Ferguson,” said Todd Ensign, ERC program manager. 

With over 25 volunteers from Fairmont State University and the IV&V program, students participated in numerous hands-on STEM activities. Ensign said those included infrared imaging and surface temperature and climate change, aviation and control surfaces, electronic circuits, rocket stability, GPS and geocaching, programming and driving several types of robots, and much more.  

Ensign noted that the event could not take place without the support of the High Technology Consortium. 

Education Resource CenterNASA IV&V FacilityTodd EnsignSTEM Educationhands-on learning