Weekly Media Roundup  June 17, 2015

Program Guides Students Through Boat Building Using Academics (WPVI, Pennsylvania)  

Local middle school and high school students capped off their boat-building afterschool program by launching two handcrafted duck boats into the Delaware River last week. The SAILOR Program (Science and Art Innovative Learning on the River) uses traditional boat building and nautical education to advance proficiency in STEM subjects. Students worked with shipwright mentors and STEM instructors at the Independence Seaport Museum for 33 weeks to design and craft the boats. “It’s a really dynamic program where they build the boat, but by building the boat they’re really learning about STEM, and really hands-on and fun and engaging way,” organizer Jennifer Totora told WPVI.  

Roosevelt Students Enjoy Hands-on Ag Experience (Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Nebraska)  

Nearly 100 third, fourth and fifth graders recently had the chance to learn about how agriculture affects their daily lives through the inaugural 4-H Ag Literacy program. The students toured six stations at the research center focused on animals, soil science, how insects affect agriculture, careers and more. The Ag Literacy program fits well with the Roosevelt Elementary School summer extended day program’s goal to focus on math, writing, reading and science, according to Principal Jana Mason. “The students were excited and learned a lot,” she told the Star-Herald. “This is the first year with the extended day program, and the Ag Literacy provides more opportunities for the students to make real world connections.”  

Marco YMCA’s Wonder Girls Program Includes Growth in Surprising Ways (Naples Herald, Florida)  

“I learned that you need to accept who you are and how to make the right choices socially, like who your friends are, and how to eat right and surround yourself with good people that make you feel good about yourself.”  This is a testimonial from a young woman who participated in Wonder Girls, a 12-week afterschool program teaching middle school girls how to be healthier, inside and out, the Naples Herald reports.  Thanks to Wonder Girls, a partnership between the Greater Marco Family YMCA and Marco Island Charter Middle School, these young women gained self-confidence, insight into themselves and others and knowledge about healthy living. Organizers are so pleased with the success of the program that they’re offering it again in the fall and plan to launch a version for males, Wonder Boys, next spring. 

Baltimore Program Tackles Roots of Unrest (Voice of America News, Maryland) 

Promise Heights, an academic-community partnership, is using four public schools as hubs to deliver nurturing, wraparound services to students, families and their communities in West Baltimore. These community schools aim to mitigate the detrimental effects extreme poverty can have on kids and their parents through services like prenatal care, tutoring and parental counseling. Executive director Bronwyn Mayden says Promise Heights schools are suspending fewer students than their counterparts, gains she attributes in part to expanded learning days and afterschool programs. The partnership strives to create a supportive environment at school and home so as to improve impoverished students’ learning abilities. “We work with those social-emotional factors… so their little brains are ready to receive the instruction that their educators are giving them,” social worker Henriette Taylor told Voice of America News.