Recent studies show that: “Specific high-value skills requested by employers and common to STEM occupations are particularly scarce relative to demand and yet particularly valuable to employers.” Further, 16 of the 20 occupations with the largest projected growth in the next decade are STEM focused, only 4 of which require an advanced degree. With one of the highest unemployment rates in the country (as high as 17.7% in Ward 8), STEM education programs are particularly crucial to District youth. So we’ve stepped up our STEM game!
Kid Power has partnered with the Technology and Gaming Lab (T.A.G.) to bring innovative new STEM-learning opportunities to life for Kid Power students at Sousa Middle School. Students designed computer games using Kodu, a gaming platform, and competed in a Game Design Challenge, which tested their innovation, design skills, and experimental knowledge.
We are truly honored and excited to announce that Kid Power has received four School Garden Grants from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to expand after-school, in-school, and summer VeggieTime programs at Jefferson Academy, H.D. Cooke Elementary, Browne Education Campus, and Sousa Middle School.
With this funding, Kid Power will implement in-school VeggieTime lessons for almost 800 students, expand after-school gardening and cooking classes, initiate school-wide composting and recycling programs, enhance family engagement opportunities, and initiate a new partnership to build monarch pollinator gardens and begin a cultural exchange with students in Mexico!
The funding also allows Kid Power to launch some of its newest VeggieTime STEM activities. Students will be participating in math instruction using garden logs to record data on plant growth, watering rates, and insect sightings; engage in interactive lessons on the life cycle of a seed; learn soil testing strategies to determine which crops to grow; play games to master what each vitamin and mineral does for the body and what happens when the body lacks a specific nutrient; and much more!
We look forward to keeping you updated on these exciting initiatives as we work to help truly integrate health and wellness into these school communities!
Speaking of gardens it’s our favorite time of the year again! Kid Power students and staff alike have been eager to get back out in their gardens after a long winter.
Central to Kid Power’s core philosophy, many aspects of these garden beds are youth led. Applying their environmental and agricultural knowledge to the 3,548 sq. ft. of garden space in their care, students have decided to plant purple cauliflower, rainbow carrots, squash, strawberries, and more delicious fruits and veggies!
Students at Malcolm X Elementary, Kid Power’s newest site in Ward 8, are particularly excited for their very first growing season in their brand new garden. Students helped to build four garden beds at the school as the foundation for what we’re sure will be a thriving garden classroom soon enough!
Join Us For Our Community Health Fair!
We hope you will join Kid Power students, families, staff, and friends for the unveiling of our new greenhouse and a celebration of community health with wellness stations, sports, academic games, and food at Barnard Elementary School in Petworth! All are welcome! Please help us make sure we have enough delicious smoothies by kindly RSVPing here by May 10th.