This summer I worked with an awesome team at the Kootenai County Boys and Girls Club in Coeur d’Alene, ID. My externship was unique in the fact I brought my expertise and knowledge in STEM and collaborated with the Club team members on how best to create an enriching STEM program for the kids this summer. By providing resources, materials, ideas, lesson plans, building tools, and a list of high need recyclable/consumables they can hang up in the club or send home to help them quickly gather supplies to make a STEM class successful. Each week I taught three to four different STEM lessons for various age groups that complimented the current week’s theme of their summer camp.

The last two weeks of the summer, the Club was willing to let me create a breaker/maker-space. I gathered up several different old pieces of technology ranging from fax machines to desktops, and the kids tore them down completely to create materials for our maker-space. When the materials were organized into bins, easy to see and access, we were able to use artists like Steven Rodrig for inspiration. Our goal was to create as many projects as we could; the kids created six projects that will be auctioned off at the Club’s annual charity event in September.