For Faculty & Staff
What we do
We work closely with individual faculty and staff, academic departments and colleges, Research and Sponsored Programs, Community Engagement, and other campus units and with UNI partners (such as the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, Iowa Academy of Science, Iowa Department of Education, Department of Natural Resources, Black Hawk County REAP Committee and Northeast Iowa Regional STEM Hub), to support STEM opportunities for UNI students, faculty, staff and the citizens of Iowa.
Our programs primarily fall into the categories of outreach and community engagement, creating community around STEM on campus and communicating UNI's STEM stories.
Get Involved with Outreach
Iowa Regional
The University of Northern Iowa is host to the FIRST Robotics Competition Iowa Regional, an event that brings more than a thousand high school robotics students to campus during the week after Spring Break. The STEM Coordinator represents UNI on the Iowa Regional event planning committee and coordinates a team social where students get to meet faculty and enjoy activities at the WRC. Applied Engineering and Technical Management sponsors the Iowa Regional Machine Shop.
Get involved: Contact us to become a judge or event volunteer or get involved in the team social. All volunteers at this event must register with FIRST and complete FIRST background check.
STEM Festivals
The Northeast Iowa Regional STEM Hub at UNI supports STEM education activities throughout NE Iowa, including hosting regional STEM Festivals, awarding Scale-Up programs to area schools and connecting citizens to Governor STEM Advisory Counsel programs. STEM Festivals are free public programs that engage local students in hands-on exhibits sponsored by schools, universities industries, and nonprofits.
Get involved: Visit the NE Iowa Regional STEM Hub website to apply to exhibit at upcoming festivals, including the Cedar Valley STEM Festival.
STEM Day Camps
STEM Support Services coordinate a series of STEM day camps for the university. Our camps provide local youth with the opportunity to spend time on campus pursuing an area of interest or passion. The camps also provide UNI students valuable leadership experience as camp counselors.
STEM Secretary, Shelia Kelly, and Coordinator, Marcy Seavey, are also administrators for connectUNI/Blackthorn registration for UNI's Youth & Camps activities. Our office can assist any department on campus with developing their registration system and getting their camp listed at camps.uni.edu.
Get Involved: Request a consultation for your existing camp/youth event; pitch a new STEM camp idea.
Supporting Your Outreach Activities
STEM Support Services coordinate or assist with the three example activities above. Contact us to learn how we can assist with your STEM and STEM-related outreach activities and/or how you/your department can become involved in campus outreach activities. We can help with planning and program design, registration and evaluation, navigating campus logistics and more.
Creating Community Around STEM
UNI STEM Community Google Group
The UNI STEM Community Google Group is open to UNI faculty & staff and campus partners. The purpose of this group is to communicate about events, opportunities and resources that benefit science, technology, engineering and mathematics education across campus. UNI faculty and staff may join the group by searching for "STEM" in All Groups while logged in with their CatID. Community members contact the STEM director for an invitation.
STEM Chats
STEM Chats are periodic themed meetings designed to bring together faculty, staff and community partners to discuss timely STEM topics or explore parts of campus. STEM Chats are announced through the UNI STEM Community Google Group and often also the UNI Calendar.
Most STEM Chats are similar to a "brown bag" lunch and contain a networking component and a short presentation on a specific theme followed by discussion. Example topics include: Changes to Federal Funding for STEM Programs, Coding Across Subjects - A discussion about computer coding embedded in non-CS academic courses, and Recruiting STEM Students - A conversation with Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment Management.
About once a semester we plan a field trip STEM Chat which provides the opportunity for faculty and staff to visit unique labs and centers outside of their own department. Examples of past field trip STEM Chats include tours of the biology's syndaver lab, communication science and disorders simulation labs, applied engineering and technical management's space at TechWorks, and the Real Time Lab in computer science.
Faculty and staff who wish to propose a topic of field trip for a future STEM Chat can contact the STEM coordinator.
SURP Symposium
Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) changes the lives of UNI students as they spend 8-10 weeks conducting research in the lab or in the field with a faculty mentor. The SURP Symposium is a poster session and celebration of the accomplishments of each SURP team. STEM Support Services coordinates the symposium and works with the students and Rod Library to publish SURP research in UNI Scholarworks. STEM coordinator Marcy Seavey is also available to assist SURP students with their poster design.
Sharing Our Stories
STEM Support Services collaborates with departments and University Relations to communicate about the good things happening in STEM on campus both internally and externally. This includes sharing about opportunities for the public, school and youth groups, and other groups to come to campus for events through partnerships and social media.
Faculty and staff may request promotion of their events, accomplishments and announcements through STEM Support Services various communication tools to specific audiences.
- Community Google Group - For UNI faculty & staff and partners such as local school administrators.
- Facebook Page - For the general public, especially Cedar Valley families and UNI community.
- STEM at UNI Instagram - For Current UNI students - announcements are limited to activities, scholarships, jobs, internships and other opportunities for our students.
- Website - Specific sections for K12 students/families, K12 educators and the UNI community.
- STEM at UNI Youtube - For sharing STEM activity videos through one of the above.