2002 Space Grant Intern, Angelita Denny, leads STEM Outreach activities on the Navajo Nation, as Site Manager at the Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management. The STEM-sation event held at Chinle High School on November 9, 2018, was requested by Denny's counterparts on the Navajo Nation. The site managers who participated in the event are all Navajo, and wanted to encourage young Navajo students in STEM fields.

"For the last STEM-sation event of the year, held at Chinle High School, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management (LM) staff and LM Support (LMS) contractors provided a variety of hands-on activities to promote science, technological, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields to students.

This event, sponsored by Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) and Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands, drew in more than 1,000 high school students and included over 20 participating vendors.

Chinle High School, in Chinle, Arizona, is the largest high school on the Navajo Nation. LM has participated in other STEM-sation events this year at Shiprock High School, Kirtland High School, and Greyhills Academy. 

LM Site Manager Angelita Denny demonstrated the use of a radiation detector (Geiger Counter) instrument that is commonly used for performing radiation and contamination surveys on DOE LM project sites around the country.

The students were provided an operating radiation detector instrument and a hands-on display that had a mix of low-level, naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) items and other items that did not contain NORM. The hands-on display included a home smoke detector, a container of Brazil nuts, a banana, a rock that contained NORM, a Fiestaware flower vase, an old spark plug, a container of NoSalt (a salt-substitute), a small bag of cat litter, and a rubber ducky. These items were specifically selected for the display in order to show that they are a generally a part of our everyday lives and that they contain small concentrations of radioactive material.

'A lot of students were interested in going to college and we encouraged them,' said Denny. 'I told them there would be times they may fail, and go through tough times. I explained that is part of the process in trying to reach their goals.'

'We want to thank all the vendors, students, and Chinle High School administrators and teachers for making STEM-sation a success,” said Nathan Tohtsoni, the NTEC education coordinator. “The purpose of the event is to promote STEM fields to our Navajo students to show them opportunities they have in these fields. They don’t have to go to the cities when there are quality STEM jobs here on the Navajo Nation.'"

- Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management