SARASOTA (WSNN) – At the Suncoast Science Center, students are not just learning about science, but making it come to life. As of this week, even more, kids will have access to this lab.
“STEM is not like how it was 20 years ago,” Student volunteer instructor, Natalie Carrion said. “It’s not just a bunch of old white guys around in a room.”
The Suncoast Science Center staff is hoping to eliminate barriers that keep low-income families from exploring fields in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
“We would like to make the program accessible to students who don’t know about us or don’t have access to our programs,” Executive Director Ping Faulhaber said.
With the 50,000-dollar grant from the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation, the center can offer its services to Title 1 schools.
“A child shouldn’t be pigeonholed into a pathway just because of the zip code they grew up in,” the Barancik Foundation communications, Murray Devine said. “Chuck and Margie strongly believed in education. That’s something you can give someone, and no one can ever take that away from you.”
The lab offers K-12 students a way to apply their knowledge from school to in the lab, from building robots. to launching rockets. Plus, student volunteers teach the classes.
“I get to learn while I teach and learn as much as I want,” Carrion said.
As a Latina, Carrion says she like to have diversity in science. She says the biggest issue is the lack of exposure to kids from low-income families.
“It’s not that they don’t have the drive or the ambition, it’s just that there’s no exposure to it,” Carrion said. “If we can get lower-income kids from elementary school age interested and invest in STEM, it can help sort of raise them up out of poverty.”
The center is focusing on recruiting student instructors from Title 1 high schools and organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs. Funds will also be used to provide scholarships for those who cannot afford classes or camp fees.
