For the past six months, Juneau AmeriCorps Service Member Craig Fox has served at the Juneau Economic Development Council (JEDC) working on the
FIRST in Alaska and
STEM AK programs. FIRST in Alaska is the state's K-12 robotics program. Teams design, build, and program robots to compete at tournaments around the state. This year the program supported 235 teams with approximately 900 participating students. Craig has helped many teams in Juneau get started, run competitions in Bethel, Utqiagvik, Juneau, and Anchorage, and trained dozens of volunteers to coach teams. For STEM AK, he has mainly been working with the Juneau STEM Coalition to assist in running events like Southeast Exchange, a networking event to connect experts with teachers, and Curiosity Unleashed. Curiosity Unleashed is a K-5 Community Event featuring over 50 activities, and this year they had nearly 600 participants.
Craig has also been creating "What's Going On in This Alaska Graph" (WGOITAG). WGOITAG is a weekly educational blog for students to use to learn about Alaska and data analysis through locally relevant graphs. We have been pilot testing with teachers from Fairbanks, Juneau, and the North Slope and hope to have an official release in March. One of the great things about these projects has been Craig's ability to meet and work with a wide range of organizations. He frequently collaborates with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sealaska Heritage Institute, and Juneau School District and has also worked with Alaska Afterschool Network, Alaska Sea Grant, Bristol Bay Region Career and Technical Education Program, the Forest Service, the Weather Service, AEL&P, and countless others. Craig has enjoyed seeing so much of Alaska and using his unique skill set to help the community.
