Promoting STEM education at Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens is an extraordinary natural laboratory for students to learn about geology, landscape dynamics, and species regeneration, hopefully, while stimulating their interest in the natural sciences! 

The Inner City Youth Institute provides high school students in Portland, Oregon, with after-school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and field trips to learn about the natural sciences. Students spent three days learning from instructors of the Mount St. Helens Institute and scientists conducting research at Mount St. Helens. The goal of the trip was to encourage students to learn about possible careers in the natural sciences and provide opportunities to talk directly with natural resource professionals. Pacific Northwest Research Station fellows Ali Freibott and Mathilda Bertills accompanied students on this field trip and report on their activities at Mount St. Helens in this story. 

Credits 

Mathilda Bertills, jägmästar student, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), International Fellow at the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.