YES-2-Tech (ITEST)
Funder: National Science Foundation
PIs: Diane Miller (SCLC); Charles Hutchison
Read a recent article about the YES-2-tech program
CSE and the St. Louis Science Center (SLSC) are jointly implementing an NSF-funded ITEST (Information Technology Explorations for Students and Teachers) project for disadvantaged teens enrolled in the science center’s Youth Exploring Science (YES) program. Combining the use of hands-on explorations with simple materials and attractive digital devices, this program seeks to provide encouragement and opportunity to underserved youth to develop fluency in scientific exploration and in information technology in the context of interesting and meaningful science and design challenges.
The program takes place at the Taylor Community Science Resource Center, a department of the St. Louis Science Center, and at the adjacent Science Corner, a parcel of remediated brownfield land donated to SLSC during a neighborhood redevelopment project. The project will consist of a 12-month curriculum (repeated with a new cohort in successive years) made up of three academic components. Each component will incorporate the use of digital technology.
YES students in St. Louis are paid an hourly wage to attend classes at the Taylor building and to do field work and service learning tasks in their community. On Saturdays, the teens gather at the center to work on the current aspect of the project. From time to time they also meet mid-week to prepare for a service learning task—leading science and engineering activities (aspects of their own work) with elementary-aged students at local after-school programs. Both the teens and the younger students they work with are mostly from traditionally underserved populations that have a high academic failure rate and a low representation in STEM careers.
CSE is responsible for setting out the content parameters of this project, pacing the implementation of the curriculum, and conducting regular trainings and site visits for teaching staff and teens in St. Louis. Teaching staff in St. Louis maintain a Web-based record of their work with the teens each week, and this record is monitored from EDC and will form the basis of a written curriculum guide that will be produced at the end of the project.
YES-2-Tech Curriculum
The project consists of multiple segments containing content in science, math, life skills development, work preparation and training, and college preparation. Use of computers and other digital devices always takes place within a context of useful application—using these technologies in the service of a real-world objective, and in conjunction with non-digital means so as to ground the digital experience in concrete experience. The three content threads in the year-long curriculum cycle are as follows:
Plant Growth
- Major Science Concepts: Soil type, water retention, germination, photosynthesis, respiration, nutrients, habitat, ecosystem, conditions for growth.
- Lab Work: Students study soils and plants in their indoor lab and select good fits for outdoor and greenhouse plantings at Science Corner.
- Science Corner: Student plant and care for outdoor plants at Science Corner. Over the course of the growing season they monitor and measure the growth of plants, including gains in height and mass as well as chemical analysis of soils and some plant tissue.
Weather Study
- Major Science Concepts: Climate, weather, temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation.
- Lab Work: Students learn how to make and use traditional devices to collect weather data throughout the year. These include max/min thermometer, windsock, sundial and precipitation meter. They also learn how to use digital devices that collect the same data continuously and make graphs and other representations of ongoing weather data in order to identify patterns in the weather that might influence the choice or the care of their plants.
- Science Corner: Students continuously measure temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, and solar radiation (including day length, solar position and height) on the study site, using both traditional measuring devices (home made where possible) and digital sensors (with software).
Greenhouse Design and Construction
- Major Science Concepts: Structural design, tension and compression, live and dead load, properties and strength of materials, energy transfer, insulation.
- Lab Work: Teens first explore the properties of frame structures using drinking straws, paper, wooden dowels, string, wire, and PVC piping. Teens design a low cost, collapsible growing frame structure that could be used to germinate seeds and protect seedlings from harsh weather conditions. Students then design a full-sized greenhouse suitable to the Science Corner site and other similar community garden sites. They learn how to use computer drawing software to show the form/shape of the greenhouse prior to construction so changes can be made to the design before building begins. Based on these designs, the teens construct small-scale models of their greenhouses from wood, cardboard, Plexiglas, and other materials. They test these structures for insulation and heat gain from solar radiation and adjust their design for the full-scale structure accordingly. The structures incorporate photovoltaic electricity to power fans, water pumps, and ventilation louvers as well as data collection devices.
- Science Corner: Students study and draw a site plan for the Science Corner site using GPS devices and standard measuring equipment (e.g., tape measures.) Students assist in construction of a full-scale greenhouse based on their final designs. Once built, students monitor the internal temperature, humidity, and air quality on an ongoing basis. Students install growing beds inside the greenhouse using different soil types and plant species that are appropriate to this environment. Subsequent cohorts of students install a water storage system to include a shallow fish tank, supplied principally by rainwater. This tank acts as a heat sink and irrigation supply for the greenhouse. Students monitor the water quality and make physical or chemical adjustments as needed.
For more information contact Charlie Hutchison at chutchison@edc.org
