Sparked Podcast
Sparked Podcast
The WVU Magazine team has read stories about Appalachia from the outside, and that can paint a difficult, immovable picture. But we want to give you the story of people who are changing the region for the better, delivered right to your ears. Sparked tells these stories, from teachers revolutionizing how math is taught in a rural county to how college students are changing the way a new generation looks at science careers. Subscribe to Sparked on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Find us at magazine.wvu.edu/sparked.
On July 24, 2001, something arrived on Earth. It would take six years for it to be
noticed. And even longer to prove it existed.
There was this teacher who believed that the way math was taught could be different
in her very rural county. That kids could better understand it and make it
their own. That they could score much higher. That teachers could stay longer.
She was right.
Two college students arrived at a school gym and showed young children how water
works. By the end of it, the kids knew that water doesn't keep itself clean.
And that science is this thing that West Virginians do all the time. And they
can do it, too.