Weekly Media Roundup: August 29, 2018

Diving Deep: New After-School Program at Library Aims to Improve STEM Skills, Kokomo Tribune (Indiana)

In Indiana, the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library (KHCPL) uses diverse ‘challenges’ to inspire a love of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in third- to seventh-grade students. Through the Digital Divers afterschool program, students complete STEM challenges ranging from laser mazes to Photoshop tasks to accumulate points and win prizes. Mentors are available to provide assistance, but the program emphasizes self-guided exploration to encourage students to learn how to learn. Children “can come here and they can have a safe place to be, learn and feel a sense of accomplishment, increase their STEM skills, which will help them and the future, all while earning prizes,” KHCPL director of marketing and community engagement Lisa Fipps told the Kokomo Tribune.

Expanding Summer Learning Collaborative Battles “Summer Learning Loss,” Delaware Public Media (Delaware)

Over the past five years, the Delaware Summer Learning Collaborative has reached 2,700 kindergarten through eighth-grade students with project-based summer programming. The collaborative partners with summer camps based at community centers to implement academic activities to combat summer learning loss. Pre- and post-tests indicated that 66 percent of students gained literacy skills in 2017. “At the start, they want someone to tell them how to do things, and we say, ‘no, you have to figure it out yourself,’” program coach Tonya Baines told Delaware Public Media. “They grow in critical thinking skills and in confidence.”

How an Oakland Nonprofit Is Teaching Girls Environmental STEM in a Way That Hits Close to Home, EdSurge

The Oakland-based nonprofit, Techbridge Girls, earned a national environmental education innovation award this year for its work creating pathways to STEM careers for low-income girls. The organization’s free afterschool programs, which reach about 600 girls each year, emphasize projects that are responsive to the students’ surroundings. For example, after the 2017 Sonoma wildfires, students learned about fire ecology and worked with disaster recovery professionals. “Environmental education and STEM for us are two intersections,” Techbridge CEO Nikole Collins-Puri told EdSurge. “Our girls, when they walk out of their household everyday, understand and live the environmental conditions, no matter if it’s about air quality, water quality or sanitation issues. That is their reality.”

In a Foreign Land, These Youngsters Spend Their Pittsburgh Summer Piecing Together a New Language and Confidence, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

At the Pittsburgh Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment (PRYSE) Academy, students from the around the world build community and practice English through art projects, academic activities, field trips and more. The free summer learning program for immigrant and refugee students was created six years ago by a University of Pittsburgh student to increase academic achievement for English language learners. “We focus, I think, a lot on building confidence, so students feel good practicing and expressing themselves,” PRYSE Academy Co-Director Isabelle Ouyang told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.