STEMOVATE: Powering Tennessee’s Future Innovators
STEMOVATE: Powering Tennessee’s Future Innovators launched in September 2025. The program will bring interactive lessons in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to sixth graders in 22 Tennessee counties this school year.
The University of Tennessee–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute is partnering with 4-H Tennessee, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education and UT-Battelle, operating contractor of Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy, to make STEMOVATE available to more than 6,000 students.
STEMOVATE leverages 4-H’s strong connections with schools across the state. Through the program, 4-H agents teach lessons created by ORISE’s team of educators that are fun, interactive, aligned with state standards and focused on key areas for Tennessee’s growth:
- Nuclear energy
- Artificial intelligence
- Engineering design
- Agriculture: Effects of non-native species
Located in 22 COUNTIES in 2025-26
Plans are underway to offer STEMOVATE to sixth-grade classrooms in Tennessee’s 95 counties next year and to expand the program to seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms across the state by 2030.
INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN STEMOVATE?
If you’re a middle school educator and interested in getting involved with the STEMOVATE program in the future, email us at: STEMOVATE@tennessee.edu.
Lesson Plans
Build-a-bot: Build your own ai
An introduction to AI and machine-learning principles through an interactive activity, demonstrating AI’s decision-making and learning capabilities without a computer.
Harnessing the Power of Nuclear Energy
In this lesson, students take on the role of junior nuclear scientists as they explore how to harness atomic energy. Students observe a real-world demonstration using a Stirling engine, examine how the U.S. consumes energy and model nuclear reactions through simulations.
calling all thrill-seekers: marble coaster engineering design
Students apply the engineering design process to create a roller coaster that safely guides a marble through hills and loops. This activity enhances understanding of energy conservation and motion, and builds skills in design, teamwork and problem solving.
AGRICULTURE: invasive species
Students explore how the invasive blue mist flower disrupts the Serengeti ecosystem. Closer to home, Tennessee farmers and land managers face similar challenges from invasive plants like kudzu and honeysuckle, which threaten crops, pastures and native ecosystems.
By learning how to collect and average data to study the impacts of invasive species, students practice scientific methods that apply directly to real-world challenges in Tennessee agriculture. These skills prepare them to understand and help address issues that affect the state’s farms, food systems and natural resources.
