FREELAND, MICHIGAN, December 13, 2021 – The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance is excited to announce the release of the next-generation STEM Passport in the form of a digital app. The app is a great resource for parents, teachers, and caregivers to access information about current STEM-based activities and events in the region and comes just in time for the 2021 holiday break.
The Great Lakes Bay Region STEM Passport is a learning resource for 19 different hands-on, dynamic STEM activities in the community. To date, the STEM Passport has reached over 77,000 students, fueling the next generation’s curiosity and involvement in STEM activities.
Launched in 2018, the STEM Passport was initially distributed as a booklet to more than 55,000 children throughout the broader eight-county Great Lakes Bay Region. In 2020, the passport moved online given the digital needs of families in the pandemic, helping bring STEM learning opportunities to students across the region. The most recent iteration brings STEM activities directly to users’ phones in an easy-to-use format that supports further STEM exploration and learning amongst youth during out-of-school time. The STEM Passport App is free and available for parents to bookmark on their smartphone.
“We are excited to bring another avenue for children and families to explore the numerous STEM resources we have in the Great Lakes Bay Region with our new STEM Passport app,” said Lori Flippin, STEM director at the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance. “The quality and ease of access to out-of-school time learning opportunities is one of the things that makes for a thriving STEM Ecosystem and supports the next generation’s interest in STEM with the latest evolution of our regional passport.”
The app includes information on STEM activities at the following organizations:
- Arenac Community Center
- Bay City State Recreation Area
- Bay County Historical Society
- Beaverton Activity Center
- Castle Museum of Saginaw County
- Chippewa Nature Center
- CMU Center for Excellence in STEM Education
- Delta College Planetarium
- Forest Hills Nature Center
- Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
- Midland Center for the Arts
- Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum
- MSU St. Andrews STEAM – STEAM Education & Research
- Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum
- Saginaw Children’s Zoo
- Saginaw ISD – Hartley Outdoor Education Center
- STEM@SVSU
- Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge / Green Point Nature Center
- YMCA Camp Timbers
The STEM Passport app was developed by Thomas Hunter II, a native of the Great Lakes Bay Region who now lives in California. Hunter is a graduate of Bullock Creek High School and attended both Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems.
“It was great to collaborate with the Great Lakes Bay STEM Ecosystem on this project and help further the access to the many STEM resources in the region where I grew up,” said Hunter. “And I’m honored I was able to put my STEM talents gained in the region back into the community in support of this effort.”
The app is currently available as an installable web app and will be available in the App Store and Google Play in the coming weeks.
More information about how to access and use the app can be found online on the STEM Pipeline website here, including step-by-step instructions for adding the app to your mobile device, logging in, and finding resources in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
About the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance
The mission of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance is to encourage, support, and celebrate regional collaboration and initiatives that will improve the economic vitality and quality of life in the Great Lakes Bay Region. The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance is comprised of 48 board members who represent various organizations across Bay, Isabella, Midland, and Saginaw Counties.
More information is available at https://www.greatlakesbay.com/