{"id":37,"date":"2018-12-19T22:52:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T22:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/?p=37"},"modified":"2018-12-21T12:19:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T20:19:23","slug":"saturday-stem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/saturday-stem\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time was running out for fourth-graders<\/strong> Dorlhe Dabila and Abigail Silva as they scrambled to assemble their robot-powered watercraft.<\/p>\n

Their challenge was to design a floating apparatus out of Styrofoam egg cartons, masking tape and string that could transport a cargo of pennies across a plastic swimming pool propelled by a Sphero, a spherical robot controlled by an iPad.<\/p>\n

The girls were among a dozen or so Vista del Valle Elementary School students participating in the Saturday STEM Academy. Every Saturday for three to six weeks a semester, Academy participants meet in the school cafeteria with coaches from Harvey Mudd College, read science and technology- related stories, discuss their readings and then do a hands-on activity.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Hannah Larson \u201920 helps Saturday STEM Academy students with a science experiment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Academy started two years ago as a partnership to provide enrichment for Vista del Valle upper-grade students and work-study options for HMC students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a student population here that doesn\u2019t always get these opportunities,\u201d says Vista del Valle Principal Brad Cuff. \u201cWe wanted to do something special for them, especially for the kids who are interested in math and science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years ago, when Cuff began his teaching career at Vista del Valle, Hal Van Ryswyk, HMC\u2019s John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry, had a child at the school and used to do science projects with the students. So, when Cuff returned as principal three years ago, he contacted Gabriela Gamiz, the College\u2019s director of community engagement, to reignite the partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Harvey Mudd students have been great role models for our students by helping them and supporting them and, of course, their science knowledge, experience and background have been really beneficial and add tremendous value to the lessons,\u201d Cuff says.<\/p>\n

During a recent session, the young students took turns reading an article about Domino\u2019s Pizza teaming up with Ford to deliver pizzas in self- driving cars. HMC coaches led a group discussion about the possible impacts of self-driving cars on a range of professions from truck drivers to UPS delivery workers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vista del Valle Elementary School Principal Brad Cuff and HMC students Sitoe Thiam \u201919 and Bradley Phelps \u201919 watch a Vista student test the robot-powered watercraft he designed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur goal is to help them think about what this means for their job market in the future,\u201d Cuff says.<\/p>\n

Following the discussion, the students had a few minutes to complete their watercraft before heading out to the pool for a test run. Dabila and Silva had taped two egg cartons together, so it could carry more pennies. They predicted that when the Sphero got tangled up in the string it would spiral back underneath the vessel and push it across the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t work, we can take the big one off,\u201d Dabila says. \u201cThen, we can see what we did wrong and what we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to worry. After removing a few pennies from the second carton, the Sphero responded as anticipated and the voyage was successful.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Madruga, an HMC junior in computer science, has been with the Academy since the beginning and has encouraged several of her friends to get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are all really smart and come to conclusions in different ways, and it\u2019s amazing to see how they can work together to apply what they\u2019ve just learned in school to some of the experiments we do in class,\u201d Madruga says.<\/p>\n

Sitoe Thiam, a senior engineering major, also has been with the program since the start. She expects the Academy will spark the students\u2019 interest in STEM much like her elementary school teacher did by introducing her to robotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the Academy gets the students interested in not only STEM fields but interested in learning in general and interested in questioning how things work, how to build things themselves and how to figure things out,\u201d Thiam says.<\/p>\n

Rachel Schibler, a junior mathematical and computational biology major, was looking for a community outreach opportunity when she started helping with the Saturday STEM Academy last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been impressed with how much coding the students are able to pick up on and how technologically advanced they are,\u201d Schibler says.<\/p>\n

Cuff says feedback from his students has been positive and a lot of them have signed up for more than one session.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids typically vote with their feet,\u201d Cuff says. \u201cIf they don\u2019t like it, they won\u2019t show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents are pleased as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey like the fact that their children have the opportunity to expand their science understanding and they like that we\u2019re the only school in the district that offers it,\u201d Cuff says.<\/p>\n

Kathy Banuelos says her 10-year-old son, Alejandro Salcido, looks forward to coming to the Saturday STEM Academy, choosing it over soccer and Boy Scouts. After a year in the program, Banuelos said her son\u2019s interests have switched from reading and writing to math and science.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, he\u2019s interested in the way things work,\u201d Banuelos says.<\/p>\n

She appreciates Cuff\u2019s passion for science and willingness to volunteer his time as well as the HMC students for talking to the younger ones about studying science in college and opening their eyes to possible careers and how science can be useful in their later lives.<\/p>\n

Cuff says he can\u2019t stress enough the influence that the HMC students can have on the youngsters. \u201cSome of them will be first-generation college students, so the ability to see and be exposed to college students that are involved in helping them is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifth grader Jessica Lopez, who wants to be a professional basketball player when she grows up, says she never really thought about college before participating in the Academy. \u201cNow, one of my goals is to get a good scholarship and major in science,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Danny Ledezma, associate director of community engagement, says that STEM-related activities help bridge the gap between the College, the community and the education field.<\/p>\n

The partnership is expected to continue and maybe even expand to another elementary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key is getting someone like Brad who is willing to volunteer their time, has the materials available and is enthusiastic and interested in the program,\u201d Ledezma says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time was running out for fourth-graders Dorlhe Dabila and Abigail Silva as they scrambled to assemble their robot-powered watercraft. Their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}