The Problem
Educational inequality, especially for minorities in STEAM/Computer Science
Our Plan
An education program designed to maximize both knowledge and engagement by teaching and encouraging the understanding and application of engineering and technology skills to problem solve and improve upon issues that students themselves witness
Themes Addressed
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Community
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Diversity
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Education
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Equality
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The Benefit
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People
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Animals
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Environment
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Here is how the project went:
The Hackinar was extremely successful! There were 25 registrants, and the student population was majority female (52% female). Our digital presence was sustained in part through our website, iuvatech.wordpress.com. Additionally, we had regular social media activity and interaction, especially during the event itself, on Twitter and Instagram (@iuvatech). Finally, the Innovation Club was maintained and established through a virtual support network and mentorship on Slack and through the Learn page on the website, rounding out the holistic digital presence we created.
Through this project I/we learned:
Through the process of implementing my project, some of the leadership skills I developed were: - Flexibility and adaptability to maximize productivity of team members, through scheduling meetings up to a week in advance and collaborating to decide deadlines based on my timeline and individual team member needs. - More effective and considerate usage of mentorship and advisement, through speaking with numerous prospective mentors about what they wanted to gain from participating, as well as being advised myself. - Research in the community to identify needs not only from a large scale through internet research, but also on a more focused, specific level by speaking to middle school teachers, including my own, about how they approached teaching and connecting to STEM principles and where they saw areas of improvement in their students. - How to physically coordinate an event, in terms of location scouting, setting times and dates, and correspondence with the location’s owners/managers, through actually comparing and researching venues in my area for the hackinar and info session, and subsequently going through the official process of booking and paying for the venue. - Balancing teaching and staying on schedule with taking meaningfully extra amounts of time to delve deeper into a subject and truly develop a sense of mastery and confidence in every student through taking breaks and pauses during an intense and fast paced lesson to clarify questions and administering surveys to allow students an opportunity to self-identify needs
What I/we might change:
3. I would reach out to tech companies to discuss a partnership related to receiving free or discounted promotional items, software, etc. Providing hardware and more complex software to students would allow them to not be limited by personal financial circumstances or technology that they may or may not own. Students would be able to fully focus on learning and applying as much as possible because all the resources would be readily available.
My/our favorite part of this project was:
Finally being able to teach and interact with students after many months of hard work and preparation, and reading their feedback
Some tips, tricks or fun facts about the project:
We're on social media! Feel free to reach out and get involved with our programs through our website (iuvatech.wordpress.com) and @iuvatech.
