Virtual transformation of USC Wonderkids
Due to the preventive protocols that USC, the Joint Educational Project (JEP), and Los Angeles Unified School District put in place to protect all its constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic, all programs were pushed into the virtual sphere. WonderKids was no exception and had to be creative in making the STEM career program online-friendly. JEP created new, virtual after-school opportunities for families and enrolled more than 125 children in programs focused on: tutoring, yoga, peace education, and STEM. Wonderkids offered two sessions per week–one for Kindergarten through second grade and the other for third through fifth grade.
Wonderkids receives support from the USC Good Neighbors Campaign (GNC). Using GNC funds, we hired three amazing staffers named Brooke McMahon, Emma Case, and Jasmin Sanchez.
Jasmin Sanchez is a junior majoring in Health and Human Sciences. She began working with JEP her freshman year and has participated in multiple programs within JEP. “JEP has become one of my biggest motivations in school,” noted Jasmin, who went on to further describe the impact of the program:
I come into the JEP house and am greeted with warmth and joy. It is my home on campus. As a student who comes from the surrounding area I know the impact that JEP scholars can have on the community. I had many USC students come to my school sites and teach me various subjects. Those interactions– though they may seem small to anyone else–brought the idea of college closer to me and made it feel more attainable. JEP students left an impression on me since I was in Birdielee V Bright l Elementary. As an eight year old I knew that I wanted to be just as cool as the JEP students when I grew up. Fast forward a couple of years and here I am working closely with amazing scientists and scholars who want everyone to succeed. I want to share my knowledge with all my students and make them feel that college is not out of anyone’s grasp. We can make it with our resilience and hard work. I use all of my ability to improve the relationships my students have with science. I translate the lessons I teach because some of my students are ESL and I want each and everyone of my students to get the same learning experience. As a first generation Latina who only spoke Spanish when she entered school, I understand what it is like to feel left out and put down academically because of a language barrier. I want all of my students to know that they all have the ability to go to college and follow the profession they admire and are interested in. I love sharing with my students my roots and professional aspirations to help them make a connection between themselves and college. It is hard to picture yourself at a university especially when you don’t know anyone who has attended or graduated from an university. I want them to remember me and remember my story because I was just like them not so long ago. I want them to know to think of me and remind themselves that if I did it so can they! I am truly appreciative for the amazing programs that JEP has and how flexible they are even during a pandemic. The STEM team has found ways to teach science with minimal materials and connect to scholars and scientists through zoom.
Usually, the Wonderkids program chooses varying STEM careers and creates hands-on content that introduces main concepts from those fields and brings in guest scientists at the end of a two week unit. This semester, each week had a different theme: Pathology, Deep Sea, Engineering, Public Health, Computational Modeling, and Microbiology. Representation for our students is a crucial element of our programming and Wonderkids worked to prioritize Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) guest speakers for the program.
Some of the speakers were chosen from other USC GNC-funded projects, like Dr. Darin Gray, and others were chosen from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCC) due to the long-standing relationship that the JEP STEM Programs have had with the NCCC, which funded the Cancer-STEM education partnership program (C-SEPP).
- Fall 2020 Speakers:
- Pathology – Martha McMahon
- Deep Sea Science – Dr. Dijanna Figueroa
- Engineering – SCout & Dr. Darin Gray
- Public Health – Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati & her NCCC team (Rosa Barahona and Bianca Rosales)
- Computational Modeling – Dr. Stacey Finley from the NCCC
- Microbiology – DJ Fernandez, a graduate student working with Dr. W. Martin Kast at the NCCC
One of the speakers, Dr. Darin Gray, had this to say about the program:
My passion is seeing how BIPOC students embrace STEM. The lesson was designed to be mindful of inclusion, diversity, equity and access. Students only needed their amazing minds and any type of paper. The approach to STEM learning in many majority BIPOC schools is didactic but using the Scientific Method and Engineering Design Process, by the end of the session, they had taken ownership of their learning by grasping the concepts and realizing that their ideas had value.
While the program was still offered twice per week, the staff had to get creative with the materials that students would have available to them at home. Brooke created imitations of pathology blocks with a steak, a tea kettle, and paraffin wax live using a makeshift document camera. This was paired with a special guest speaker, one of our staff member’s mom, Martha McMahon! We also had activities where the students constructed paper airplanes for the engineering segment and created Cartesian divers for Deep Sea Week. During the engineering week we also had a student organization group and fellow GNC-funded program called Science Outreach (SCout) come to talk to the K-2 group.
The transition to online was a swift one but we were able to maintain components of literacy, math and tech while focusing on the STEM-themed content. And the program has continued to positively impact the children who participate. Patricia Perez, parent of two sisters in the program, had this to say about WonderKids “I cannot express the gratitude I have towards everyone in this program. It has helped my girls greatly with their self esteem”.