Thanks to dozens of faculty, staff and student volunteers from WVU who attended the 2023 National Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, thousands of Scouts learned more about STEM this summer.
The WVU Science Behind the Sport program hit the road in late July to deliver educational programming demonstrating fundamental STEM principles through the lens of adventure sports. Their target audience was Scouts from all over the country who gathered in one place for 10 days for the once-every-four-years event.
Program Director Andrew Hoover said embedding hands-on STEM learning into the Jamboree experience was a resounding success.
“This was a program created to support the Scouts BSA to enrich their time at the Jamboree,” Hoover said. “We were able to use the intellectual capital of the University to put a fun spin on STEM education. We’ve designed a series of lessons for each sport that demonstrate the application of science related to things like biking and climbing that the Scouts are already excited about. The Scouts are able to engage in hands-on learning then immediately put it into practice.”
The WVU team focused on the STEM principles inherent in five adventure activities: cycling, rock climbing, skateboarding, paddling and archery. Participants, of which more than 14,000 checked in across the Science Behind the Sport program areas over the course of the Jamboree, were awarded a WVU patch set in exchange for completing the roughly 2.5 hours of educational programming offered by the group.
“The WVU patch was really hot,” said Greg Corio, WVU assistant vice president for outdoor youth advocacy and initiatives, Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative. “All the kids wanted it. They were literally running around learning, engaging with our student volunteers and doing whatever they needed to do earn that patch.”
This year’s event was the fourth Jamboree for WVU volunteers and Corio said each event is better than the last.
“We’ve really learned how to interact with these kids and how to provide a high-quality program,” he said. “They learn so much during this event and not just about scouting. They also get a warm West Virginia welcome, exposure to WVU as an option for college, leadership training and one-one-one interactions with people they might never otherwise meet.”
Hoover said this year’s crop of student volunteers was the best yet, too. “Time and time again, Jamboree leadership would come to me and tell us how incredible our students were,” Corio said.
Abigail Judy, an environmental, soil and water sciences major from Winfield, has been working as a WVU Extension 4-H STEM Ambassador all summer, so the Science Behind the Sport programming was right up her alley.
“This is the best summer I’ve had in a very long time,” Judy said. “Working with Extension and being at the Jamboree has even healed some of the academic weariness I was carrying from last school year. It’s been a truly incredible experience for me despite never having been a Scout myself. I sure feel like I’m one now.”
Find out more about Science Behind the Sport.
Read about how WVU Health Sciences also helped at the Jamboree.