Weekly Media Roundup: February 8, 2017

After School Program in Roanoke Gives Students Interest in Manufacturing (WDBJ, Virginia)

Breckenridge middle schoolers are learning skills that could one day lead to well-paying manufacturing jobs at Roanoke’s Maker Mart afterschool program. Students in the program work with drills and saws to get hands-on training that will help them learn math and technical skills in a fun, engaging way and prepare them for the workforce. “I want to trick them into that,” program director Kathleen Duncan told WDBJ. “….I want to have this starkly different feel than a lot of the stuff they are getting in a typical classroom.”

North Hollywood Students to Compete in Hackathon (Daily News of Los Angeles, California)

North Hollywood High School students will soon take part in a competition to hone their cybersecurity skills. The semifinal round of CyberPatriot IX: The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition is an anti-hacking competition that will test the students’ ability to repel simulated cyberattacks. Computer science teacher and coach Jay Gehringer said teaching cybersecurity skills is valuable for the future of both students and the country. “I really feel like I’m helping students pursue a career, I’m showing them something they might find interesting and I’m doing something that will make America a better place,” he told the Daily News of Los Angeles.

Women Raise $9,700 to Start Lab Girls Program (New Hampshire Union Leader, New Hampshire)

Each quarter, nearly 200 women in the organization 100+ Women Who Care Peterborough pick a nonprofit and each pledge to donate at least $50 to its cause. This quarter, they raised nearly $10,000 to jump-start Lab Girls, an afterschool STEM program aimed at empowering middle school girls. “It is a vote of confidence and belief in our region’s girls,”  Susie Spikol Faber, community programs coordinator at the Harris Center, which will run the program, told the New Hampshire Union Leader. “….The club will develop a network of girls supporting girls with women scientists as role models, encouraging young adolescent girls to keep connected to these STEM skills and grow their abilities.”

4-H Clover Colleges Grows After-School Programs (Hot Springs Star, South Dakota)

The local 4-H will soon offer special afterschool workshops in Custer and Fall River counties each month, giving students of all ages a chance to explore robotics, aviation, cooking, art, nature and more. The workshops will be offered to students of all ages, whether or not they belong to 4-H, as well as their parents. “This is a local effort and idea to provide more innovative, creative and diverse learning opportunities for our youth,” South Dakota State University Extension 4-H Youth Program Advisor Brad Keizer told the Hot Springs Star. “The idea is to offer these workshops where the majority of our 4-H families would find them most convenient with their busy schedules.”