University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H has two new STEM toolkits available for use by formal and informal educators in hands-on science-based activities with youth. 

The Sky’s the Limit is designed to increase awareness and understanding of solar energy through basic circuitry; energy collection and transfer; engineering design principles; and building design challenges. Suitable for grades 6–8. Support for this toolkit is from the Maine 4-H Foundation and RLC Engineering.

The Sustainable Fishing toolkit is designed for use with grades 3–5 to explore and investigate what species are fished for in Maine waters and methods of finding fish, including showing how eDNA is used to detect species’ presence in the water and the difference between sustainable and unsustainable fishing. 

This toolkit is supported by National Science Foundation award #OIA-1849227 to Maine EPSCoR at the University of Maine and developed by UMaine Extension as part of the Maine-eDNA research, education and outreach program.

For more information contact 207.581.3877 or  4-HScience@maine.edu. More information also is available on the Extension 4-H STEM Toolkit webpage.  

University of Maine Cooperative Extension: As a trusted resource for over 100 years, University of Maine Cooperative Extension has supported UMaine's land and sea grant public education role by conducting community-driven, research-based programs in every Maine county. UMaine Extension helps support, sustain and grow the food-based economy. It is the only entity in our state that touches every aspect of the Maine Food System, where policy, research, production, processing, commerce, nutrition, and food security and safety are integral and interrelated. UMaine Extension also conducts the most successful out-of-school youth educational program in Maine through 4-H.

 
About the University of Maine: The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state's land grant, sea grant and space grant university, with a regional campus at the University of Maine at Machias. UMaine is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation. UMaine Machias is located in the homeland of the Passamaquoddy Nation. As Maine's flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service. UMaine is the state's public research university and a Carnegie R1 top-tier research institution. It attracts students from all 50 states and 81 countries. UMaine currently enrolls 11,989 undergraduate and graduate students, and UMaine Machias enrolls 747 undergraduates. Our students have opportunities to participate in groundbreaking research with world-class scholars. UMaine offers more than 100 degree programs through which students can earn master's, doctoral or professional science master's degrees, as well as graduate certificates. UMaine Machias offers 18 degree programs. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide to conserve energy, recycle and adhere to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine and UMaine Machias, visit umaine.edu and machias.edu.