Online Summer Camps in Sacramento 2021
Even during the pandemic, our team was able to remotely teach hands-on activities for K-12 students. We shipped microbits (small, low-cost robots) to all our summer students, and we showed them how to program them.
We did a Coding Camp for Young Womxn from 8th to 10th grade who had never been enrolled in a computer science class. The first contact with a scientific topic is extremely important for any student, and we provided the best roles models with our instructors and guest talks by successful womxn working in computer science. Our main was to interest students in different concepts of computer science and programming and get them familiar with the potential applications in different fields.
We also did a Introduction to Robotics in… Read more…
Summer Camps in Merced 2019
Mars has a lot of potential for human occupation. However, we don’t really know if we can live there (or if there is life there) unless we explore and experiment with living on Mars! In this scenario we will build a compact station, power that station, make sure we have the necessary nutrients and see if we can decipher a code someone… or something else… left behind.
Motivational Talks about Math 2019
Math is an essential subject that many students don’t like… but that is because they don’t know how useful it can be for so many interesting topics. We did a series of four motivational talks about how to use math in the real world… Read more…
Science, Technology and Arts for Youth (STAY) 2018
The scope of the program was to address different advanced topics with a hands-on focus, such as natural sciences, robotics, computing science and the scientific method, besides encouraging the artistic development of the students. To spark in the students more interest, we designed activities in which they needed to fulfil a task in order to get a medal. With enough medals, they received honorary titles such as “Nature’s Mystery Master” or “Ruler of Machines”. They had field journals and will write down everything they do, as scientists do. By the end of the day, using their field journal, they wrote an online journal where they will add texts, pictures, drawings, or whatever content they imagine.
Migrant Education Program Enrichment in Science and Technology, MESAT 2017
Engaging children in the academic and professional enterprise is a challenge, particularly for families lacking college experience or who struggle with the English language, including recently immigrated populations in the San Joaquin Valley. Serving the communities of the San Joaquin Valley, the State of California, the nation and the world through excellence in education, research and public service is the Mission of the University of California, Merced. This proposal seeks to develop a framework to honor these principles through the creation of a sustainable and dynamic educational and research structure, unifying the four-population cores of UC Merced: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and K-12 students that will become the next generation of scholars.
We propose to implement a cooperative program targeting K-12 students from local schools in Merced County, supported by undergraduate students and professors, and led by graduate students from UC Merced. An interdisciplinary and diversified team of graduate students will have the opportunity to grow professionally improving their professional and teaching skills through workshops for K-12 students in Merced County. Those workshops will require specific work and skills from the instructors, and will aim to raise the curiosity for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines, to spark the interest in pursuing higher education in middle and high school students. The curriculum will address different topics, such as natural sciences, robotics, computing sciences, design and the scientific method, including field work.
MESAT Program 2016
In 2016, our team partnered with the Merced County Office of Education to provide a summer camp for children, especially to serve migrant families. We delivered eight weeks of workshops, including Arduino-based robotics and Ecology.
The mission of the Migrant Enrichment in Science and Technology (MESAT) program was to increase migrant student college attendance and success in school through providing fun and engaging STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational activities, empowering students with the resources they need to succeed in their futures.
It is difficult for many migrant students to succeed in school because they move frequently, many school programs are not designed to fulfill their unique needs, and education may not be a priority in their homes or communities. All of these factors can affect migrant students’ confidence in their ability to succeed in school, and ultimately their ability to get into college. To combat these problems,…