Parallax Advanced Research, in collaboration with the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI), enhances STEM education through its involvement with the Ohio Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s GRILL® program. The OSGC, part of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, offers scholarships, internships, and research opportunities to foster a diverse STEM workforce for aerospace. Since 2019, Parallax has supported GRILL®'s mission to build STEM skills through initiatives like summer programs, hands-on labs, and free educational resources, impacting thousands of students and educators.
OSGC focus areas:
- Develop a diverse STEM workforce in Ohio and the nation: OSGC provides competitive scholarships, fellowships, and internships to students at Ohio universities. These programs include research projects and mentorship opportunities with NASA centers and industry.
- Engage students and faculty in hands-on STEM research activities: OSGC offers grants for student-led innovative and hands-on projects (SICHOP grants) and supports faculty research and curriculum development aligned with NASA research priorities.
- Support collaborative STEM research for Ohio faculty and students: OSGC provides grants and summer research and internship opportunities for faculty and students to engage in collaborative STEM research.
- Increase STEM awareness for Ohio K-12 teachers and students: OSGC exposes K-12 teachers and students to NASA education materials, offers teacher training programs and workshops, and provides mini-grants for innovative space-related projects in math, science, and computer disciplines.
- Encourage informal educational activities promoting STEM: OSGC offers grants to support informal education activities that promote STEM education in collaboration with other organizations.
- Additionally, OSGC provides various student awards, including graduate fellowships, undergraduate scholarships, pre-service teacher scholarships, and special scholarships in memory of former OSGC directors. It also supports student internships at NASA centers, industry, and universities.
- Furthermore, OSGC funds student-led programs focused on balloon satellites, rockets, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and design projects, which aim to increase student exposure to space hardware design requirements and develop practical team-building skills.
Through these focus areas, OSGC strives to foster a diverse and well-prepared technical workforce for NASA and the nation while providing opportunities for Ohioans to engage in NASA-related STEM research, education, and public service programs.
The problem areas and challenges that the OSGC addresses include:
- Limited access to STEM education and research opportunities: OSGC aims to expand opportunities for all Ohioans to engage in NASA-related STEM research, education, and public service programs, particularly for underrepresented groups.
- Lack of diversity in the STEM workforce: OSGC's goal of developing a diverse STEM workforce in Ohio and the nation indicates a recognition of the need for increased representation of individuals from diverse backgrounds in STEM fields.
- Limited exposure to NASA-related education materials: OSGC seeks to increase STEM awareness for Ohio K–12 teachers and students by providing exposure to NASA education materials and offering teacher training programs and workshops.
- Insufficient funding for innovative STEM projects and research: OSGC provides grant opportunities for Ohio faculty, educators, and students to support innovative programs and research demonstrating STEM-related interests. This addresses the need for funding to advance STEM initiatives.
- Inadequate hands-on research experiences for students and faculty: OSGC offers opportunities for students and faculty to engage in hands-on STEM research activities through programs like SICHOP grants and faculty research grants. This helps address the need for practical research experiences.
- Limited resources and support for informal STEM education: OSGC encourages informal educational activities promoting STEM by providing grants for informal education projects. This helps address the need for resources and support in informal STEM education.
Technical Lead
OSGC Program Director
Robert Romero
Related Focus Areas
Air Force Research Lab's Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory (GRILL) ®
Parallax has been actively involved in the Air Force Research Lab’s GRILL ® STEM program since 2019, participating in career fairs, organizing and hosting job shadow and outreach events, hosting the annual AFRL internship programs, collaborating with teachers and superintendents, and developing free content for elementary, middle, and high school teachers.
The goal of the GRILL® STEM program is to design programs that develop and sustain a diverse STEM workforce by building collaborative programs between the Air Force Research Laboratory and mentors, students, and educators. In support of STEM education, the GRILL® is working to develop a robust toolkit of educational STEM content for schools and teachers for use in the classroom, after school, or during independent research activities.
GRILL® Student Initiatives include:
- Summer Programs - Throughout the summer the GRILL® hosts interns from the Wright Scholar internship program and United States Air Force Academy cadets summer program designed to expose students to various disciplines of engineering and science to further their interest in future STEM career options.
- Full Throttle STEM® – Full Throttle STEM® is a middle school and high school STEM initiative centered on physics, math, and Modeling and Simulations (M&S) applied to the sport of racing. It provides students with relevant learning opportunities and challenges their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
- Labs and Field Trips – Students have an opportunity to experience a variety of hands-on simulators and coding programs used in everyday life, state-of-the-art virtual reality simulations, and 3D printing. They can even create their own video games. The GRILL® engineers assist teachers and students with their various projects, that can include hosting fieldtrips, job shadows, or even lessons on programming.
- Hands-On Summer Camps – Summer campers learn about the engineering design process in Carboard Cars Camp; explore space habitats and delve into the world of rocketry at Space Camp; and learn the basic concepts of coding in Coding Camp.
Free Teacher Resources Developed in the GRILL®’s Education STEM Toolkit:
Teachers Pay Teachers - Projects, syllabi, and challenge problems for educators to download for free on Teachers Pay Teachers or via an email request for use in their classrooms.
- Elementary School Resources - Teaching resources for students between kindergarten and 5th grade that include lessons, challenge problems, and essay prompts.
- Middle School Resources - Teaching resources for students between 5th and 8th grade that cover programming, engineering, math, data collection, and logic.
- High School Resources - Teaching resources for students between 9th and 12th grade that cover graph theory, game development, MATLAB®, robotics, general programming, math, social studies through game development, and basic AI.
GRILL® STEM Accomplishments since 2019:
- Hosted 163 interns and 152 Job Shadows.
- Organized/Attended and ran 20 career fairs and 102 Outreach Events such as science fair judging, FlexFactor Judge, STEM Summer Camps, Design Challenges, etc. reaching over 23,000 students.
- Planned, organized, and participated in annual Full Throttle STEM Day with second location/event added in 2021 (13 schools and 200 students per year).
- Reached over 300,000 students via Teachers Pay Teachers downloaded content.
- Community involvement continues to grow with active participation from DO STEM, Montgomery County Business Advisory Council, and Ohio Homeland Security Council (OC3).
- Received numerous awards to include 711th Human Performance Wing Collaboration of the Quarter, vIITSEC 2020 Iron Dev People’s Choice Solution, and the 2023 Serious Games Showcase People’s Award.
Technical Lead
GRILL STEM Manager