Science-U Summer Camps Expand Offerings to Include Underserved Youth
This past summer, Science-U summer camps added new offerings amid partnerships with researchers and organizations that serve children with special needs.
The first new camp offering, “Finding Your Roots,” is based off of the popular PBS TV show of the same name. Headed by Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology Nina Jablonski, the two-week camp provides campers with a personal genetic and genealogical perspective to help them learn scientific concepts.
“Finding Your Roots” campers took a DNA test prior to attending the camp, and information from their tests was used to teach them about topics like inherited traits, evolution, and anthropology. Campers also conducted genealogical research into their own families to learn about traits and traditions.
The camp was designed to be a partnership between research and STEM education. For this research, Jablonski's team was interested in determining what methods can get students from a diverse set of educational backgrounds engaged in STEM. In exchange for the students’ participation in this research, many of the camp expenses were covered.
“Finding Your Roots” camp will return in 2017, with a new twist. Thanks to a partnership between Science-U and our local PBS affiliate WPSU, next year’s “Finding Your Roots” camp will be filmed and hopefully televised nationally as part of the “Finding Your Roots” PBS TV series.
“This is exciting news because we assume there will be footage used from Science-U in the nationally broadcast show ‘Finding Your Roots,’” said Michael Zeman, director of science outreach in the Eberly College of Science.
In addition to the “Finding Your Roots” camp, Science-U added two science camps tailored to
children with special needs. This year was the pilot for a two-day “Science Superheroes for a Sustainable Future” mini camp created for children on the autism spectrum. The idea for this camp came from Bill Dusch, a doctoral student in physics. Dusch’s experiences in science outreach and working with youth on the autism spectrum were key to designing the camp.
“It’s a different way of thinking that has its own strengths, such as focus,” said Dusch. Jessica Kim-Schmid, an education program associate with Science-U who co-led the camp with Dusch, agrees. “There are many strengths that students on the autism spectrum have that are a good fit for science.”
When Dusch and the Science-U team were planning the workshop, they discovered an un- expected helpful coincidence.
“As we sought resources at Penn State for working with special needs children, we discovered that the National Autism Conference is hosted by Penn State at University Park campus every summer and the conference coincided with the week we wanted to run the camp program,” said Zeman.
Because of this coincidence, Dusch and the Science-U staff were able to easily match children who attend the National Autism Conference to this pilot camp. In 2017, the camp will be extended to four days and will be marketed to schools, parents, and teachers in the nearby region.
Another new camp was a camp for blind and visually impaired children. Science-U partnered with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Penn State Summer Academy for Students Who are Blind or Visually Impaired, and Penn State’s Center for Nanoscale Science. Twenty-five visually impaired campers who were attending the Summer Academy were able to participate in a special half-day forensic science camp.
“One of the priorities of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is inspiring the next generation of scientists and making sure that the next generation includes members of every segment of the population,” said Kristin Dreyer, program director for education and outreach for the Center for Nanoscale Science, which is a National Science Foundation–funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
“This is a group, individuals who are blind and visually impaired, that is marginalized in terms of STEM education and opportunities for entry-level career pathway consideration,” said Zeman.
The camp focused on solving a crime using forensic science methods that utilized other senses, like smell and touch, and adaptive technologies for the visually impaired that allowed the campers to both collect and verify evidence and analyze it in the lab.
“For these students, they had to get down on their hands and knees and feel around for something or they had to try to literally ‘sniff out the clue’ with our scent clue and they had to use their adaptive technology, so they had to think about it a little differently,” said Katie Mantz, a forensic science course and curriculum developer who served as the director for the camp.
Due to the success of these camps, Science-U’s staff and partners are excited to expand these types of camp offerings in the future.
“Any group that is not currently served in science is therefore needed in science,” said Dreyer.
Zeman agrees. “All groups in the margins, including the underserved, disabled, and under-privileged, should have access and opportunity to experience career pathways and possible entrance to post-secondary STEM education experiences. By providing these opportunities, we all benefit because a variety of new and important perspectives are incorporated into solving problems that we face.”
To see videos made during these Science-U camps, visit youtube.com/PSUScienceU.
