Weekly Media Roundup: March 16, 2016

After-School Club in Mitchell Lends Focus to Entrepreneurship (Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Nebraska)

Students are learning what it takes to be an entrepreneur and run their own business in EntrepreneurShip Investigation (ESI), an afterschool club for fifth through seventh graders. The club supports kids who come up with business ideas and coaches them through developing and supplying a product, which they then sell at an expo at Mitchell Elementary School in May. The club also features guest speakers who talk about their experience owning a business. “I think this club gives them a heads-up on what opportunities they can create for themselves in the future,” fourth grade teacher Michelle Engstrom told the Star-Herald.

Next Stop, Mars: Flying with NASA (Daily Independent, California)

A group of fourth and fifth grade students in the High Desert Leapin’ Lizards afterschool program may be the first people to set foot on Mars in 2030 – at least NASA education specialist David Alexander thinks so. Alexander held a teleconference with kids in the program last week where they discussed the details of NASA’s space shuttle program and some of the basic physics involved in sending people to Mars, planting the seed in their minds that one day they could be astronauts too, according to the Daily Independent.

Campbell Students Learn by Building Bicycles (Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio)

Students in Campbell County Middle School’s Club 21 are learning important science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills by building bicycles from scratch and creating objects on a 3-D printer after school. Kids in the club will work with volunteer mentors—including a police officer, a teacher and a counselor—to put together their bicycles over the next ten weeks. “I think these kids learn not only the ins and outs of putting a bike together, but following instructions and patience,” CCMS counselor and club mentor Kelly Crowley told the Cincinnati Enquirer. The STEM clubs are part of the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative.

Elementary School Robotics Team Beats Middle School Students (Grand Traverse Herald, Michigan)

A team of elementary schoolers from Long Lake Elementary are heading to Louisville, Kentucky next month to compete in the world championship VEX robotics competition after besting a number of middle school teams at a state-level competition. The RoboRunners team meets regularly after school to design their robots for competition, learning a host of important STEM and life skills along the way, from computer programming to teamwork. Most importantly, it’s a fun and engaging way for kids to spend their after school hours, according to ten-year-old Valerie Marinello, whose mom initially signed her up for the club. “I’m so glad she signed me up because I’m having so much fun and I love being on robotics,” she told the Grand Traverse Herald.