EvolvingSTEM Afterschool Program at the Homewood Community Engagement Center

Abstract 

Our EvolvingSTEM (evolvingstem.org) program addresses the critical need for engaging, equitable learning practices that support student success and promote a well-educated, diverse STEM workforce. Pitt Seed funding will support our efforts to provide an afterschool program to underserved students from the Pittsburgh Public School system at the Homewood CEC’s modern laboratory space. Students will design, conduct, and analyze their own bacterial evolution experiment under the guidance of Pitt undergraduate mentors. Student projects will utilize cutting-edge laboratory and computational techniques, including bioinformatic analyses of genomic DNA sequencing data.    

Principal Investigator 

Vaughn Cooper 
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Select Collaborators 

Abigail Matela 
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Steven Abramowitch 
Bioengineering 

David Boone 
Biomedical Informatics 

Cassie Quigley 
Instruction and Learning 

Daren Ellerbee 
Director, Homewood Community Engagement Center 

Edwina Kinchington 
Science Chair, Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy