Foster Youth Learn About STEM Hands-On

Recently, more than 40 local foster youths participated in the University of Redlands (UR) Student Success Academy which exposed them to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education at the Redlands campus. The Partnership for Academic Success, a grant jointly funded by the County of San Bernardino and UR, provides an opportunity for foster children ages 10 to 18 to the participate in the university’s program each month. STEM blends challenging academic concepts with real-world experiences. This approach allows students to gain new skills representative of a changing job-market. Dr. Carol Ann Franklin, Professor Emerita and grant administrator develops the curriculum for the Saturday academies which often have a STEM focus. "The Student Success Partnership program has been in place for more than six years. Through tutoring, mentoring and hands-on activities, we strive to meet our goal of increasing the youths’ academic competence so they can better define their future," said Franklin. School of Education Professor Dr. Gary Scott led the youth in a wind-racer design challenge using sophisticated K’Nex engineering kits. In the challenge, teams of students worked on a design problem in need of a solution. In this case, the problem to be solved was the design of a sail that would best power the race car. The students then had to develop and compare possible solutions, as well as implement their designs and test the results. The students constructed their K’Nex racers by following visual diagrams. This skill strengthens spatial reasoning abilities through the process of translating two dimensional drawings into three dimensional models. The next step was to design a sail that would produce the fastest results. Students were asked to create different sail designs as they investigated the relationship between sail attributes and potential vehicle performance. Once the sails were constructed, the teams had to determine the best way to connect the sail to the racer. In the end, the teams experimented with the orientation of their sails to see which position would provide the most driving force to their cars. The hands-on problem solving demonstrated through this Student Success Academy is just one example of how critical it is to provide our youth with these important life skills.