"Bringing Space to Village" SERVIR Global's STEAM Outreach and Learning Opportunities for Youth

SERVIR connects space to village by helping developing countries use satellite data to address critical challenges in food security, water resources, weather and climate, land use, and natural disasters. A partnership of NASA, USAID, and leading technical organizations around the world, SERVIR develops innovative solutions to improve livelihoods and foster self-reliance through our hubs in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. As a capacity building project within the NASA Applied Sciences Program, the SERVIR network predominantly focuses on building the capacity of our partner institutions and their stakeholders, however, each hub has identified key activities we regularly participate in where we can intentionally target STEAM outreach. We have learned that to effectively achieve our mission we need to reach out to underserved and minority communities, hence, we capitalize on strategic opportunities to support STEAM education and outreach with youth in the regions where we work. SERVIR's global reach and mission provides a platform to expose the next generation of STEAM professionals to NASA's data platforms, expertise and applications.

Since 2017, representatives from our Eastern and Southern Africa Hub and Science Coordination Office have provided curriculum for the WiSci Girls STEAM camp. The camp, led by the U.S. Department of State, including partners from Girl Up Campaign, the Intel Corporation, Google, World Learning, and others brings together 100 high school aged girls from the US and Africa to expose them to STEAM activities and careers. SERVIR hubs also support regional NASA Space Apps Challenges targeting primary and secondary schools around the world. Additional outreach activities that will be discussed during this talk include partnering with like-minded institutions such as GLOBE, 4-H Kenya, and Ministries of education. Building relationships with institutions that engage youth allows us to leverage our expertise without extending beyond the scope of the SERVIR project. It is our goal, that as a global network, we can continue to build these partnerships and target additional outreach opportunities that encourage STEAM learning for youth while supporting the SERVIR mission.