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• How to execute so many different programs while still maintaining the quality at a high level with only 3.6 permanent staff? We utilized a large number of volunteers (including high school students, graduate students, and faculty) and 2 temporary staff to help us. The volunteers and temporary staff were a tremendous help and of great value to us. Leveraged money from other sources helped to pay these temporary employees.
• One of our main challenges is acquiring and maintaining possession of sufficient space for our teacher and student programs¿many of which have overlapping schedules. An additional complication is storage space for our Educational Resource Center, which loans equipment, supplies, and kits (FOSS, GEMS, Cambridge Physics, Bridging II TAKS, etc). We have addressed the challenge in several ways: 1) partner with other institutions that have space available (i.e., Texas A & M University at Galveston and University of Houston Clear Lake) for some programs/events; 2) obtain the use of space free of charge from foundations (i.e., Moody Gardens); 3) utilize other buildings on campus (requires transportation of supplies for training back and forth which is time consuming and inconvenient); and 4) perform some teacher training at school district sites (requires transportation of supplies and materials). These strategies have enabled us to successfully complete our programs. In addition, this year, we acquired some additional office, classroom and storage space for our programs from the University. A change in adminstration and increased funding assisted this acquistion. Our long-term goal is to obtain our own building.
• The long-term tracking of students is an essential aspect of determining the success of our outreach programs. Traditionally, it is very challenging and time consuming to do this by mail outs and interviews. We are currently developing an online follow up website for students to return to and provide updates on their progress. As an added inducement, prizes will be awarded (random drawings) to students who completed their update that year.

• Our website, www.utmb.edu/oeo, describes all of our educational outreach programs which are supported in whole or in part by our HHMI grant. This will enable other program directors or interested parties to see the great variety of programs available at The University of Texas Medical Branch for students and teachers. These programs were designed to complement each other. The student programs literally serve as a pipeline to help funnel preK-12th grade students into future science-related careers. A large percentage of the students that we serve are from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. One program is specifically targeted to 6-8th grade girls. The teacher professional development programs serve to improve science education in the surrounding school districts by enabling K-12th grade teachers to motivate and inspire students with high quality, inquiry-based, hands-on science classes and also help to recruit students to our science enrichment programs.
• Our website www.utmb.edu/tstem is undergoing further development and within the next six months it will contain many STEM resources and also a unique feature--Career Classroom Connections. This feature will have videoclips of individuals in STEM careers and will also relate what students are learning in math and science to those careers. It allows students, parents, and the general public to see how what is learned in school is applied in the workplace.

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