Are you a school or other organization interested in creating a walkSTEM tour of your very own? After school learning spaces, universities, museums, zoos, cities, and corporate offices are all examples of sites that have created their own walkSTEM tour for their communities.
We’ve compiled a list of resources here to make the process as easy as possible! Thanks to talkSTEM’s partnership with Otocast, an app-based audio tour platform, your content can even include features like GPS-enabled directions, embedded images and videos, support for digital badges and competitions, and your own voice guiding listeners from all over the world through your walkSTEM experience – whether online or using a mobile app! You can choose how to share your walkSTEM tour on your campus or in your location of choice. We are excited to provide a range of options. Your students, families, or educators can access your content in the way that works best!
Note: All walkSTEM resources are completely free on our website and YouTube channel. Learn more about the walkSTEM initiative here. talkSTEM is a nonprofit organization with the mission of developing STEM mindsets in ALL children.
Learn more about talkSTEM.
Examples of Student- and Instructor-created walkSTEM Tours Across Platforms
Audio-based walkSTEM tours, like those created by the science coordinators at the 5 North Texas school districts using Otocast, as part of a project with Wipro coordinated by University of North Texas at Dallas in 2021-22. These districts’ tours can be viewed when searched for by name within the Otocast mobile app, or online as a progressive web app (PWA) by following the links below:
Video-based walkSTEM tours, like those created at Duke University by a student intern on campus. These can be experienced in our
MathFinder online video library, and have also been adapted into
mobile and
web app formats by Otocast.
Docent-led tours, like those at the Solar Prep School for Girls (Dallas ISD). At Solar Prep, students worked together as an after school club with guidance from their principal to lead visitors on tours of their new school building. Some of these were also recorded, and adapted into
video tours for future use!
Making a walkSTEM tour is as simple as 1, 2, 3!
1Decide on the location you’d like your tour to feature! This can be a campus, a museum, a zoo, or just a neighborhood you think lends itself well to being shown off in a science, technology, engineering, arts, and / or mathematics-based tour. Next, decide on the specific objects or locations that will be your tour stops. Reach out to us at info@talkstem.org if you’d like to discuss. We are happy to help!
2Create your content. Our Create Your Own walkSTEM framework (together with worksheets and examples) are all freely available here. We’ve also made an easy template available here, handy for planning tour stops and text, whether making videos or app-based tours. We’re happy to help you along the way, and can offer tips and examples from previous tours as you need! Once your content is created, you can just zip it up and send it our way, and we’ll take care of the rest, distributing to both our official talkSTEM YouTube channel and Otocast as you want.
3Tell your friends, and take the tour! Now that you’ve made your walkSTEM tour, it’s time to enjoy and share it with the world.
Join the talkSTEM professional learning network. We are actively growing and will be providing opportunities for all in school and out of school educators across Texas and anywhere else in the US. Sign up if you are interested in learning about our growing professional learning network. Any individual who is involved in teaching and learning activities involving k-12 students may sign up e.g. teachers, coaches, curricular specialists and others at school sites, museums, zoos, Boy and Girl Scouts, libraries, community centers, parents, education professors, etc.
