{"id":1948,"date":"2026-07-17T08:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:39:40","slug":"osu-extension-intern-inspires-the-next-generation-through-educational-stem-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2026\/07\/17\/osu-extension-intern-inspires-the-next-generation-through-educational-stem-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU Extension intern inspires the next generation through educational STEM programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My name is Madeline Breiling, and this is my fourth year working with OSU Extension in Umatilla County, but my first year\u00a0serving as a 4-H intern. I recently graduated from the College of Charleston in South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics,\u00a0astronomy\u00a0and data science. This fall, I will be returning to the College of Charleston to pursue a master’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. I am excited to be back in Pendleton for another summer serving the community through OSU Extension!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n
Hermiston summer school students working on building a paper stomp rocket. Photo: Madeline Breiling<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

I am now in the seventh week of my internship. This summer, my primary focus has been reaching nontraditional 4-H audiences by\u00a0providing\u00a0STEM education opportunities to students who may not otherwise have access to them. STEM programming is an area with significant need in Umatilla County, and I have been grateful for the opportunity to combine my passion for STEM education with community service by developing my own STEM curriculum, creating lesson\u00a0plans\u00a0and teaching hands-on activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n
Featuring an afterschool program art project from students at the YMCA who followed a binary algorithm. Photo: Madeline Breiling<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

To start my internship, I worked with the YMCA elementary after-school program in Milton-Freewater, where I taught unplugged computer science lessons. These activities focused on building foundational computational thinking skills, including following algorithms, communicating\u00a0clearly\u00a0and developing creative problem-solving strategies.\u00a0I also taught lessons in physics and engineering that encouraged students to take the lead in the scientific process through experimentation, allowing their creativity and curiosity to guide their learning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past two weeks, I have also been teaching an aerospace engineering unit to fourth- and fifth-grade students at Hermiston summer school. The unit concluded with students working in teams to design and build stomp rockets using paper and tape before testing them outside. After their\u00a0initial\u00a0launch, students developed a hypothesis about a design change that might improve their\u00a0rocket’s\u00a0performance,\u00a0modified\u00a0their rockets and launched them again to test their ideas. It was exciting to watch them apply the engineering design process while learning through experimentation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the\u00a0remainder\u00a0of the summer, I will be leading a STEM activity at Camp Cloverbud and teaching STEM lessons for the YMCA summer camp in Milton-Freewater.\u00a0I am looking forward to the opportunities still ahead.\u00a0It has been incredibly rewarding to see students become excited about STEM, especially since many of them have limited opportunities to\u00a0participate\u00a0in hands-on STEM learning during the school year. Seeing their curiosity and confidence grow has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my internship.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone!\u00a0 My name is Madeline Breiling, and this is my fourth year working with OSU Extension in Umatilla County, but my first year\u00a0serving as a 4-H intern. I recently graduated from the College of Charleston in South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics,\u00a0astronomy\u00a0and data science. This fall, I will be returning to the… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14884,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,140,8],"tags":[171],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-h","category-stem","category-umatilla-county","tag-madeline-breiling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}