As we might all be aware by now, although STEM is crucial to the functioning of today's society, community access to STEM opportunities from pioneers - especially research institutions like the University of Washington, Seattle (UW) - has not been consistent over the years. We - a group of PhD students and faculty in various STEM Departments at UW - aim to fix this issue by developing a rigorous program that will facilitate participation from both sides. We are currently at the brainstorming stage, and plan to test/mold this free program through a few high school classrooms before potentially requesting more funding from university departments and federal agencies to maximize impact.

For a few months now, we have been working on putting together an outreach program for high schools.
We plan to organize and host a variety of in-person/Zoom sessions covering the following topics:
1) demos on STEM concepts;
2) presentations on the consequences of STEM in society, personal life, career, research and college admissions/life, etc, and;
3) teacher/parent-mitigated mentorship to students.

All this will be done with the intent of empowering, encouraging, and inspiring students - particularly those from underserved public high schools - to pursue STEM-related activities/education post-graduation. We hope that this will complement your efforts as a STEM teacher to entice your students' participation and enhance their education.

To this end, we must understand the current situation of STEM in Washingtonian high schools. We must gauge current needs/wants in STEM education. Being a STEM teacher, a hard worker for our target group, your thoughts and perspective would benefit us immensely as we shape this program and prepare for challenges in its implementation. Thus, we would be humbled to hear directly from you on this matter through this form. In your responses, we encourage you to put as much detail as you can or want to. All prompts are optional, and you are welcome to make your responses anonymous. However, we kindly ask that you do not take this survey more than once.

Please feel free to email Tharindu at tharindu@uw.edu with any questions you might have. If you feel that a video/audio call might be more effective at conveying this information to us, we will gladly setup a meeting. Thank you for your time!