SURF education team champions STEM at 2025 state education conference

Education has been part of the vision of the Sanford Underground Research Facility since its inception. It’s true that the children in school today are the researchers, engineers, technicians, and educators who will advance world class science and inspire learning across generations in the decades to come. 

This is one reason why SURF is committed to supporting math and science educators across the state and nation—and why the Education and Outreach team works so hard every year to put hands-on learning opportunities in front of thousands of students annually. 

This year the SURF Education and Outreach team again took part in the South Dakota Education Conference in Huron. The conference, hosted annually by the South Dakota Science Teaching Association and the South Dakota Council of Teachers of Mathematics, is the largest gathering of STEM educators in the state. For SURF, the event is a crucial opportunity to connect with teachers about the programs for students and educators offered at SURF. 

“If you want to be influential in your state in science and math education, you really have to be there,” said Nicol Reiner, director of Education and Outreach at SURF. “It’s a good place to hear new ideas and discuss them with colleagues who care deeply about their work across South Dakota.”

A highlight of this year’s event was the "Rise and Shine with SURF” session where the team shared updates from the underground lab and gathered feedback from teachers on how to better support their classrooms and professional development. SURF also presented hands-on sessions, including a popular "black boxes" activity led by Ashley Armstrong, Science Education Specialist at SURF, where participants systematically tip, turn, feel, and listen to the interactions occurring inside a box to determine its inner structure. 

“They will gather enough evidence to build a conceptual model, indicating not only what shape is in the box, but also how big or small is it, and where is it located,” said Julie Dahl, Science Education Specialist at SURF. “With help from other participants in the class (who have the same lettered model), they can compare and refine their models. In this way students will apply the skills and procedures that scientists use to discover things about the world that can’t be directly observed.”

Reiner adds this one of many hands-on activities SURF brings to classrooms across South Dakota each year. 

“It is so fun,” Reiner said, reflecting on her experience leading a separate hands-on session alongside Dahl in front of sixth graders in Brookings. “There are almost always students who are too shy to ask questions during the activity but come up afterward because they want to know more. You know you’ve hooked them when they stay behind to ask, ‘Can I be that? How do I get more information?’”

Reiner stressed that SURF will continue to be a key support system for STEM educators.

“We’re really excited about and proud to be supporters of math and science teachers across the state,” Reiner said. “We want them to see us as the organization to turn to when they need help. Here we are—reach out, we can help.”

The conference also honored SURF’s longstanding partner, the Center for the Advancement of Math and Science Education (CAMSE) at Black Hills State University, which received the Friend of Mathematics Award. Reiner highlighted CAMSE’s critical role in establishing SURF’s Education and Outreach programs and praised their continued collaboration.

“CAMSE was actually involved in the formation of Education and Outreach at SURF,” Reiner said. “They’ve just been a huge partner, and we can do better work because we’re partners with them.”

This school year, the SURF Education and Outreach team will reach about 20,000 students in large and small schools across the state with their hands-on curriculum and STEM learning. It seems worth noting, South Dakota’s lone Nobel Laureate, Ernest Lawrence, once attended a small school in the town of Canton, South Dakota. Lawrence shows us all, there is reason to believe that any one of the young people reached by the SURF Education and Outreach team, could be inspired to follow his footsteps.