Springing Back Into Remote Learning
With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full force in Los Angeles, YSP staff began feverishly preparing for the Spring semester of teaching. Since the Fall semester threw us into remote teaching, our staff was more than prepared to face the challenges associated with Zoom learning. Still, we had to adjust our plans to ensure that Spring instruction was also at-home-friendly. In preparation for this semester, YSP staff members spent countless hours revising lessons, finding household materials to substitute for inaccessible supplies, and making lesson accommodations for online teaching. For example, several of our fourth-grade lessons centered on the concept of electricity. For our squishy circuits lesson, the 4th grade staff decided to swap out D-cell batteries, battery holders, and wire for coin batteries and Play-doh, allowing us to illustrate the same concept with more easily obtainable materials.
Mr. Shaginyan, a second grade teacher from Foshay Learning Center stated “the Young Scientist Program from USC has been a great resource for my students and has allowed them to turn their personal spaces into a science lab. Thank you for engaging my students and for making online learning more interactive!” Thanks to funding from the USC Good Neighbors Campaign for the Community Applying Systemic STEM Education to Schools (C-ASSETS) we were able to send several local-LA staff members materials with which they could assemble STEM supply kits that were later kindly distributed by our partner teachers.
Unfortunately, we were unable to hold on-site workshops this semester, due to COVID-19 precautions. In addition, our semester was shortened to seven weeks of instruction. However, our staff was able to continue making lessons more accessible for all of our partner schools. For classrooms that were unable to receive live instruction, several staff members continued creating Youtube videos that corresponded with weekly lessons. In total this Spring, we created 60 new instructional videos: 45 of which were for YSP, 9 for MSP, and six for Wonderkids. The Youtube Channel is called USC JEP STEM Programs. Furthermore, many of the staff and volunteers revised the kindergarten and first grade curricula and also created corresponding Youtube videos to expand the virtual resources to share with our partner schools.
Ninety-one percent of our student staff returned to teach this semester. Luckily, we were able to take on several new staff members, including Max Moulton and Quetzalli Vergara for YSP, and Lindsay Huerta for Wonderkids.
This semester, JEP’s STEM Education programs, which include the Young Scientists Program, Wonderkids, and the Medical STEM program, are generously supported by the following individuals and organizations: the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, Raytheon, the Winn Family, the North Area Neighborhood Development Council (NANDC), Union Bank, and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. We thank them for their continued support of our STEM programs!