"Thank
you, it was a very fun and educational camp", said a 3rd grade student.
The
best part about STEM For Kids’ programs is “getting the students to
finally think critically pertaining to real world situations.“, a K-8 public
school teacher in North Carolina.
“…
campers left with a better appreciation of the structures around them as well
as the importance to communicate and work together.”, STEM For Kids' STEM Coach in a blog
about life of a STEM Coach.
These
and numerous other feedbacks from parents, campers and educators encourage us
and help us make continuous improvement towards our two-fold mission of making
STEM fun and real.
With
7 months of 2013 already under our belts, we asked ourselves, how are we doing in
progress towards our mission?
Many
of my past colleagues from industry and corporations ask me, “I know my stuff,
I am an expert in what I do … however, how do I explain it to kids in a fun way?”
Yet, as I discussed in my earlier post The
Big Bang Theory of STEM, fun is an important and critical ingredient of a STEM
program geared for kids. Results from our camper survey shows that STEM For
Kids’ (SFK) is excelling on this front …

On
the REAL front, we observed a 30% percent point improvement in children’s
knowledge of how science is used outside school after they participated in a
STEM For Kids’ 7 day camp.
Making
strong connections to the real world is a priority as stated in our
organization’s mission. In the end, we
are striving to get children prepared for life skills for the real world. Our program
participants experience 3Cs of critical thinking, collaboration and communication;
they budget, manage to time constraints, work in teams, use technology as a
tool, conceptualize ideas and share with others.
Selected
guest speakers in SFK programs are bolstering our efforts by bringing industry
perspectives to further feed campers’ curiosity. Recently young minds in grades
K-5 made a connection between their robotic creations and NASA’s Curiosity
mission to Mars through an exciting presentation by NASA Solar System
Ambassador, Marc Fusco.
Read
News and Observer reporting of the event here.
By:
Moni Singh, Founder and CEO, STEM for Kids, LLC. Mrs. Singh offers a unique
perspective on innovation in education through her three lenses: as a mother of
elementary age children strongly focused on making STEM fun for kids; as an
engineer and a technologist who has brought several technologies to the market,
from wireless phones to smart meters; and as a business leader who understands
through her work across global organizations that success in the 21st
century requires skills in addition to pure technical competence.