Outreach
Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health
(PEER)
PEER Home Page
The PEER Program is a unique and innovative educational outreach
effort with an emphasis on rural middle schools. The focus of this
program is to enrich and stimulate student interest in the areas of
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). To accomplish
this, the PEER program has a multifaceted approach directed at K-12
students and teachers, undergraduate and graduate students,
veterinary students, veterinarians, and scientists.
Through the encouragement and facilitation of scientists and
veterinarians to visit classrooms, we are helping students
recognize the connection between what they learn in school and what
is being done in the "real world." This motivates the students to
learn more and possibly encourages their pursuit of careers in
science and veterinary medicine. To date, scientists have visited
over 35,000 students through this endeavor. Additionally, after
being trained on pedagogy and presentation skills, graduate and
veterinary students design and implement lessons on various topics
in public schools. These experiences help hone their communication
and presentation skills while fostering public school students'
interest in STEM areas.
The PEER program is actively developing high quality
instructional resources that teachers can easily incorporate into
the classroom. These educational materials merge the curriculum
teachers must teach with current issues such as green energy
technologies and veterinary research topics. To facilitate the
specific requests from public school teachers, the Peer program
also maintains a distance learning community where graduate and
undergraduate students create teaching resources for activities and
online lessons. Various other materials are also available online,
such as video presentations by scientists, veterinarians,
veterinary students and graduate students. Currently, over 1,750
teachers have attended workshops that demonstrate how to
incorporate the many PEER materials into their classrooms.
Organization and Departmental Events
Open House
Vet School Open House is a huge event every year where we open all
the doors and let the public get to see exclusively behind the
scenes of Texas A&M's premiere veterinary school.
Veterinary Enrichment
Camp
This special summer program is for high school students who have
an interest in the field of veterinary medicine. The three-day
program will give participants the opportunity to explore the
possibilities of veterinary medicine as a career. Participants will
live in University dormitories, attend special sessions, and
discover the broad diversity of career opportunities available to
graduates with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.
Texas AgriLife Extension Service
Extension Veterinary Medicine
Extension Veterinary Medicine is a program unit of Texas AgriLife
Extension Service in the Department of Large Animal Clinical
Sciences. We are committed to the education of the people of Texas
regarding livestock health and care.