Two initiatives stand out as motivating factors for effective education and public outreach in physical anthropology: the first is a global STEM education reform movement which seeks to populate the STEM workforce with highly trained, skilled workers, increase the number of qualified STEM educators at the K-12 level, and contribute to a science literate society; the second is an effort by granting agencies to expand the impacts of funded research projects to classrooms and the public by requiring researchers to include an education or outreach component in grant proposals. This symposium will address these initiatives by demonstrating (1) effective methods for and positive outcomes of teaching and learning about physical anthropology at the K-20 level, (2) the impact of public outreach via informal science programming, web-based resources and social media and (3) models of successful engagement programs for field researchers interested in working with local communities.