Spring 2019 YSP Updates
Originally Published June 18, 2019
The Young Scientists Program had a wonderful Spring 2019 semester. Here’s a look at some of the changes, opportunities and challenges from the last few months.
LAUSD Teacher Strike. In January, our classroom partners in the Los Angeles Unified School District went on strike to support their students and communities. United Teachers Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, with more than 33,000 members and thousands more supporters, lead one of the largest teacher union strikes in the nation’s history. As YSP works in partnership with classroom teachers, we decided that our TAs would not cross picket lines in alignment with teachers. In order to accommodate this decision, YSP was shortened by two weeks so as to begin after the strike was resolved.
New Staff. We welcomed three new Teaching Assistants to the program, and we are so grateful for all the work they and our veteran TA’s have done on behalf of the program this semester!
Additional programming. Thanks to a generous grant by the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, we were able to extend the Fall semester Wonderkids Cancer Unit into a full Medical STEM Program that includes both after-school and in-school components. Three of our school sites have welcomed this new program into their 2nd-grade classrooms and so far it has been a great success.
Workshops. YSP orchestrated two workshops this semester. Our first was funded by the USC Good Neighbors Campaign and held at John W. Mack Elementary for students in grades 4 and 5. Students learned about robotics through a series of hands-on activity stations, including guiding a robot through a maze. Our Special Education Coordinator, Lauren Clarke, wrote and submitted a successful Lowe’s Toolbox grant. With it, we hosted an underwater robotics workshop for special needs students in the surrounding schools.