Maine Space STEM Program

Funded by NASA, MaxIQ Space is collaborating with Educate Maine and the Maine Space Grant Consortium to deliver a K-12 Space STEM program from late 2022. 

The goal of this program is to promote Space STEM skills and open up career opportunities in the growing space sector. In April 2022, the development of the Maine Space Sector was confirmed (press release), and this K-12 Space STEM program has been designed for Maine to equip and prepare youngsters for the opportunities that await them.

Why should we participate?
Since 2016, teachers and students alike have found the MaxIQ Space STEM programs exciting, educational and fun. Using the modular electronics kits, conducting experiments and research, these kits can be extended to handle high altitude balloon flights and rocket launches. This particular program has been designed for Maine, to support teachers and students, to ensure that the Maine space sector can grow to its full potential.
For case studies and examples please see this page.

What does this entail?
MaxIQ Space is customising their international K-12 Space STEM program specifically for Maine. Delivery includes teacher and facilitator training, curriculum and challenges relating STEM, space and sustainability, modular electronics kits, workshops and support sessions.

Modular electronics kits:
Schools get to keep with kits as they can be fully re-used. These kits are IoT enabled, connect to a data dashboard, and support topics such as data science, coding, big data, robotics and internet of things (the STEM and Advanced kits will be customised for the Maine group).

Support content:
As teachers are pressed for time, MaxIQ Space will be providing support from trained facilitators and easy to use teacher support materials.

• Topics to be covered are listed on this page
• Challenges relating to the topics are outlined on this page

(Examples can be found on this page, all content will be securely provided using Canvas LMS)

Impact to date:
In summary, the first year of the program delivered:

• 15 schools tackled the full K-12 Space STEM program
• 305 students actively engaged in Space STEM experiments
• 32 students presented their space-related projects at an international space conference
• 10 schools conducted space-related projects
• 3 student visits to space industry players

A summary of the report can be found here, and the full 77-page report is available on request.

The Space Race Is On!

Maine has an early mover advantage in the new space race for talent and skills. Following the announcement from the USA National Space Council of a new coalition of space companies that will focus on increasing the space industry’s capacity to meet the rising demand for the skilled technical workforce, MaxIQ Space is hitting the ground running!