Weekly Media Roundup: May 9th, 2018

Forestview After-School STEM Clubs Highlight Need, Booming Popularity (Pine and Lakes Echo Journal, Minnesota)

The afterschool programs at Forestview Middle School are overwhelmingly geared toward STEM. Many students are currently participating in the robotics club; others are learning to program drones, work with a laser-engraving machine or operate high-altitude balloons. As multimedia teacher Jim Reed explained to Echo Journal, "What we've basically done is we've tapped into kids that didn't have anything to do after school. Instead of having kids go home and play video games, why don't we have them build video games?"

Middle Schoolers Race Solar Powered Cars in Downtown Grand Junction (KJCT, Colorado)

In Grand Junction, Colorado, students in the MESA (math, engineering and science achievement) program spend their afterschool time learning how to both build cars and be more sustainable. Students recently showed off their solar-powered cars this weekend in a race downtown. “MESA inspired innovation and creativity, there are all sorts of ways to use that in future careers and lives," Anne Wenzel, Executive Director for Western Colorado Community Foundation, told KJCT.

An Orchestra Adopts a City, One Kid at Time (New York Times)

OrchKids, the brainchild of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director Marin Alsop, started ten years ago with just 30 children as an afterschool program where students learned to play classical music. Now one of Baltimore’s most successful afterschool programs, Orchkids boasts over 1,000 student participants, tens of success stories and past performances at venues around the world, most notably for Michelle Obama at the White House. “Every time they step out, they’re a positive image of our city,” Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh told the New York Times. She added that she would like to see OrchKids expand. “Baltimore is about possibility. Baltimore is about future.”

Kids Stock Fish as Part of New Milford Arts and Nature Program (New Milford Spectrum, Connecticut)

Nature was front and center on the curriculum for a dozen children in the After School Arts Program of Washington, Connecticut this year. On a trip to New Milford, the children had the chance to stock the local river with brook trout from a local hatchery and learn about conservation efforts in the area. The Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust put on activities for the students to teach them about local animal species, make “wildflower seed bombs,” and explore the local ecosystem. “We really encourage kids to unplug and get out. Even most of our art programs are outside,” program manager Ali Psomas told the New Milford Spectrum.