The Institute started this past quarter with a new venture, a STEAM Enrichment Program, for 23 Mexican students aged 10 and 12 from Tijuana. We collaborated with Fundación Tú más Yo to work with their AVANTE program graduates over several Saturdays and weekdays in June and July providing 8 sessions including some new lessons in marine biology, physics, engineering, and health. A big thank you to new friends at Fundación Tú más Yo and AVANTE, and especially to Mr. Paul Eichen as without his donation of 20 student laptops this would have not been possible.
Late June, we kicked off a two-week virtual Professional Teacher Training Workshop for 27 teachers hailing from Argentina, Mexico, and Peru. Thank you to the U.S. Embassy in Peru, Pan American Energy, and José Fimbres for their support. Teachers worked to create new lessons immediately applying their new teaching skills.
Turning our attention locally, to underserved Latinx students in San Diego’s South Bay region, the Institute signed an MOU with Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) to collaborate on STEAM programming. Through the SUHSD/IOA collaboration, STEAM Labs will be offered with a place based focus emphasizing San Diego sectors experiencing workforce gaps and job growth ̶ biotechnology and genomics, renewable energy, information technology, and climate change. Programs have been developed for three of the four areas. Actual programming will commence March 2022.
Additionally, in October, we are excited to host a virtual Specialized STEAM Lab on Climate Change for 26 Peruvian students and showcasing some new instructors including: Enrique Ortiz from Association for the Conservation of the Amazon Basin; Alfonso Navarro Carvalla from Climate Interactive; Dave Fish from Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. We also welcome the return of Sula Vanderplank of Pronatura Noroeste. Also, in October the Institute plans to collaborate with CETYS Universidad to deliver a STEAM Lab for 35 Mexican middle school students introducing them to more science through hands-on experiments and connect them with Latinx STEAM professionals.
