After-School STEM Robotics & Coding Program
Our mission is to excite and empower girls with knowledge and confidence in STEM to become future solvers and leaders. We aim to make STEM available to ALL girls, in particular those who don’t have access to other programs. Our program is an ideal introduction to STEM for girls that might not otherwise consider science and engineering programs in an after-school safe environment that encourages and supports teaching and engaging girls in STEM.
Despite significant advancement in educating and promoting STEM activities for girls, women still hold only 24% of STEM jobs in the US. Studies have shown that girls enjoy STEM activities but 4 in 10 girls say they don’t get enough practical experiences. A recent Girl Scouts of America study found that high school girls interested in STEM have more career support from parents, family members, teachers and friends. According to a recent Microsoft study, girls cited a lack of female role models in STEM as a key reason they did not follow a career in the sector.
Our curriculum will be used as a tool to teach real world math, science, engineering, architecture, and technology skills to the 6th- 8th grade girls in our program. Through this curriculum, girls will learn and reinforce math, science, and engineering concepts. Our Game-Based Learning lessons will introduce girls to math, physical and life sciences, and engineering/architecture helping develop critical 21st Century skills. The girls will learn with their peers in a fun team format while developing critical reasoning skills such as; problem solving, communication, team work, creativity, innovation and productivity.
Our solution is a free after-school Robotics and Coding Program for girls at Ponce de Leon Middle School, provided in a weekly 2-hour session for the 2023-2034 school year.
Our program will introduce Lego Mindstorm, a software platform produced by Lego for the development of programming robots on Lego building blocks. Each version of the system includes an intelligent ‘brick’ computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motos, and Lego parts from the Technic line to create the mechanical systems.
The concepts will enable the students to build and program their own robots with the ability to receive commands directed by the students’ using tablets, computers and smart phones.
Concepts taught will include State Logic, Friction, Tolerance, Physics, Critical Thinking, Material Torsion, Momentum, Digital Logic and Material Sciences.
Our solution targets and serves the female students that attend Ponce de Leon Middle School, a Title I School that primarily serves children that live in a marginalized community that have been identified as 'low-income' by the U.S. SBA. Our solution will impact their lives by providing a free after-school safe environment, including a meal each program day, that encourages and supports teaching and engaging girls in STEM.
The young ladies selected to participate in this program will be identified by the school as those that are both most deserving and would benefit the most from our solution; those with few or no other after-school options.
To better understand and engage with them, our staff ‘Team” for this program will be predominantly led by female instructors and will also include female members of the school’s science department. The majority of our team come from the same neighborhoods and backgrounds as the young ladies we will be working with to demonstrate that success and opportunities in the STEM fields are attainable.
Our solution will address their needs by providing the young ladies at this school with an opportunity to participate in and obtain practical experience in STEM. We will work with the school to encourage and support their young ladies participating in this program as well as assist in recruiting additional participants to join.
This program is comprised of and led by members who emerged from the public education system in Miami-Dade County who value the impact that mentoring has had on our personal/professional success: most from the same neighborhoods and backgrounds as the children served.
Our staff/leadership are comprised of community stakeholders impacted by issues we are addressing. Our team is integrated in defining core values, identifying and prioritizing issues respective to each neighborhood served to determine the appropriate course of action to provide solutions. Our program will address mental health issues and include social, emotional and cognitive components, proactively addressing decision making and thought process through ‘life-skill’ scenario activities/discussion to address decision reflection and problem-solving. We will work with younger community members, organizations and foundations providing similar youth-based programming, posed with the same challenges as those we serve to identify current needs and requests, respective to the children served to provide a structured program to support using qualitative evidence, collected through a combination of feedback from community stakeholders including grassroot staff, teachers, school administrators, parents, elected officials, direct observation of current after-school programming, and an analysis of best practices found in other similar communities and programs. We recruit volunteers from local public and private schools, students from the local universities (University of Miami and Florida International University) and community members through media engagement, free outreach events and partner workshops with other organizations, foundations and appointed figures. We offer training and resources to develop and advance our mentors that wouldn't otherwise have access to civic and community engagement opportunities or positions of power.
Our organizations leadership, community partners and staff reside and/or previously resided in the communities we are supporting, having or have experienced the same challenges as the children we serve. Through conversation with them, current and past program participants, we will provide a tailored program that best addresses deficiencies and challenges faced by these individuals as well as identifying opportunities for improvement. This allows us to gather an intimate understanding of the needs and wants of those facing the challenges we are committed to addressing. Our decision-making process regarding program development, innovation, program locations, hiring, fundraising and community events are performed collectively with all parties with an emphasis on those individuals impacted the most. We make it a priority to employ and develop people most affected by the issues we address.
Our program is unique as it's framed by behavior change theory resulting from behavioral economics, calling for incentivizing full participation to attain maximum benefits which has proved to be a very effective means to inspire and motivate the youth we serve.
- Support K-12 educators in effectively teaching and engaging girls in STEM in classroom or afterschool settings.
- Pilot: An organization testing a product, service, or business model with a small number of users
We currently provide an inclusive after-school STEM Robotics & Coding Program at Ponce de Leon Middle School for 28 students that is open and available to all students enrolled in the school.
Additionally, we provide an inclusive after-school STEM Program at the Gibson-Bethel Community Center in South Miami to approximately forty-five 3rd-5th graders. Our Minecraft Game-Based Learning City Rescue Program is designed to groom an environmentally conscious generation that understands the hazards and threats behind global warming and climate change.
We are applying to the STEM Challenge for support towards creating a female-centric after-school STEM Program; a safe, educational, fun and comfortable environment for young ladies to empower themselves in the STEM field being supported and taught by other female leaders and mentors proficient in science, technology, engineering and math.
As this will be our first female-centric STEM Program, we are excited for the opportunity to utilize the resources that will be available to us and gain further knowledge in support women in STEM through the 6-month Support Program. By offering a female-centric STEM program, we hope this will encourage more local female leaders in the Miami area to take stock and support the participants of our program.
Specifically, our goal is to obtain financial support to not only provide an after-school STEM based learning program for young ladies, but to also create a platform to inform and educate our students on the gender biases and lack of women’s representation at leadership levels in STEM careers and the root causes. Going forward our mission will be working towards designing effective solutions for everyone to ensure women become more prominent in this sector.
We hope that Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures can assist us in connecting with other
organizations and foundations providing similar youth-based programming that are posed with the same challenges when providing female-centric programming to identify current needs and request with the goal of providing quantitative evidence-based programming.
We are confident that through Solve and Tiger Global Impact Ventures support, we can leverage this opportunity to highlight the need for gender equity in STEM, gaining additional community support to maintain and expand on this program. We realize that while government action and sound policies play a critical role in addressing these challenges, so does strong engagement from the local public and private sectors.
We are also very interested in learning and identifying how a Social, Emotional, Learning component would complement our proposed program.
This program is comprised of and led by members who emerged from the public education system in Miami-Dade County who value the impact that mentoring has had on our personal/professional success: most from the same neighborhoods and backgrounds as the children served.
Our staff/leadership are comprised of community stakeholders impacted by issues we are addressing. Our team is integrated in defining core values, identifying and prioritizing issues respective to each neighborhood served to determine the appropriate course of action to provide solutions. Our program will address mental health issues and include social, emotional and cognitive components, proactively addressing decision making and thought process through ‘life-skill’ scenario activities/discussion to address decision reflection and problem-solving. We will work with younger community members, organizations and foundations providing similar youth-based programming, posed with the same challenges as those we serve to identify current needs and requests, respective to the children served to provide a structured program to support using qualitative evidence, collected through a combination of feedback from community stakeholders including grassroot staff, teachers, school administrators, parents, elected officials, direct observation of current after-school programming, and an analysis of best practices found in other similar communities and programs. We recruit volunteers from local public and private schools, students from the local universities (University of Miami and Florida International University) and community members through media engagement, free outreach events and partner workshops with other organizations, foundations and appointed figures. We offer training and resources to develop and advance our mentors that wouldn't otherwise have access to civic and community engagement opportunities or positions of power.
Our organizations leadership, community partners and staff reside and/or previously resided in the communities we are supporting, having or have experienced the same challenges as the children we serve. Through conversation with them, current and past program participants, we will provide a tailored program that best addresses deficiencies and challenges faced by these individuals as well as identifying opportunities for improvement. This allows us to gather an intimate understanding of the needs and wants of those facing the challenges we are committed to addressing. Our decision-making process regarding program development, innovation, program locations, hiring, fundraising and community events are performed collectively with all parties with an emphasis on those individuals impacted the most. We make it a priority to employ and develop people most affected by the issues we address.
Our program is unique as it's framed by behavior change theory resulting from behavioral economics, calling for incentivizing full participation to attain maximum benefits which has proved to be a very effective means to inspire and motivate the youth we serve.
Our female-centric STEM Robotics Program will introduce students to Lego Mindstorms, a software platform produced for the development of programmable robots.
Provided weekly in 2-hour window for approximately 24 students at Ponce de Leon Middle School, our group will be split into 6 teams of 4 students. Each Students will learn the following concepts: State Logic, Momentum, Friction, Tolerances, Material Torsion.
These concepts will enable students to build & program robots with the ability to receive commands using tablets, computers & smart phones.
This program provides tools to learn real world math, science, engineering, architecture, and technology skills, reinforcing these concepts, developing critical 21st Century skills. Students will learn with their peers in a fun team format while developing critical reasoning skills such as problem solving, communication, teamwork, creativity, innovation and productivity.
Our teaching philosophy is based on:
- Game-based learning: through play.
- Real-Life application: they apply their knowledge of science, engineering, and math to real life simulations in robotics.
- Defeat Stigmas: STEM is for everyone, regardless of gender, race, ethnic background, etc.
- Challenge Students: students are challenged to think outside the box, be creative & innovate to create positive and plausible solutions to the problems in their communities, cities and overall, the world.
Our goal for the 2023-2024 school year and going forward is to increase program enrollment by 30% and programming by 15%. Funding and other resources will help us reach our goals by becoming more efficient with regards to time management, communication and organization allowing our team to shift more resources towards program development, increasing our volunteer pool and reaching more children.
Our goals and learning outcomes for all our programs include:
- Improvement in behavior, demeaner, attendance and grades
- Developing independence by creating challenges and goals in a new environment.
- Functioning as an effective team by utilizing personal strengths in a group setting.
- Explore a specific topic through experimental and interdisciplinary approaches.
Over the past 3 years, we have demonstrated that we can achieve these goals as a result of the community partnerships we have established, the financial support we have received to ensure our program development is aligned with our enrollment and participant demand and staff development.
Specific goals for this program include procuring the necessary resources to provide a female-centric STEM Program from the 2023-2024 school year, assemble a team to carry out this vision and identify community partners and business leaders to engage the participants of this program and provide exposure to real world math, science, engineering, architecture, and technology skills.
Upon the conclusion of this program, our goals are for each participant to demonstrate proficiency in the concepts taught in this class, build a demand for increased enrollment of at least 50% and explore providing an advanced after-school STEM Program for the following year.
Program effectiveness is measured using a combination of process and outcome measures. Metrics for process measures include absenteeism and attrition in our program, with the goal of 80% attendance and attrition no more than 5% using daily attendance and program registrations as a source of data. Metrics for outcome measures include child engagement and teacher/parental satisfaction through observational data obtained by Graduate Students from the University of Miami School of Education and student and parental satisfaction using surveys.
Progress will be measured in several areas including enrollment, proficiency, engagement, attendance and behavior and will be evaluated periodically throughout the year to ensure they are understanding and can effectively communicate and demonstrate the concepts being taught in class. In addition, our goal is to create an environment where children are attentive, enquiring, fosters completion of assignments and encourages them to make insightful contributions to activities and discussions.
Specific results include improvement in grades, effort and behavior, an increase in engagement, school attendance, insightful class contributions, confidence, healthier, and happier students.
Our solution directly addresses gender inequity in STEM education by providing a female-centric program using game-based learning implemented and created by a predominantly female led team from similar backgrounds as our target population to girls that don’t have access to after-school programs.
Our program will provide tools to learn real world math, science, engineering, architecture, and technology skills, reinforcing these concepts, developing real life application skills that can be applied to future simulations in robotics, coding and engineering.
Studies have shown that girls enjoy STEM activities but 4 in 10 girls say they don’t get enough practical experience. Our program will provide 72 hours of free programming over the course of the 2023-2024 school year. In addition, our participants will be competing in intramural competition, competition among other schools, guests’ speakers from female professionals in the field of STEM and field trips to competition and professional environments in the field of STEM.
A recent Girl Scouts of America study found that high school girls interested in STEM have more career support from parents, family members, teachers and friends. Our goal to provide a female-centric program, expanding on this program to additional students and at additional locations will serve as a catalyst to ensure more girls receive the support necessary to ensure success.
According to a recent Microsoft study, girls cited a lack of female role models in STEM as a key reason they did not follow a career in the sector. In additional to a predominantly female-led team of instructors, our program will include a guest speaker and field trip components exposing our participants to female professionals in the STEM field.
The core technology we will utilize in our program is robotics and coding through exposure to Lego Mindstorms, a software platform produced by Lego for the development of programmable robots based on Lego building blocks. Each version of the system includes an intelligent ‘brick’ computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motors, and Lego parts from the Technic line to create the mechanical systems.
Initially, the students will learn the following concepts:
- State Logic
- Momentum
- Friction
- Tolerances
- Material torsion
These concepts will enable the students to build and program their own robots with the ability to receive commands directed by the students’ using tablets, computers and smart phones.
Subsequently, we will continue to expand on the concepts taught to include the following:
CONCEPTS
- Digital logic
- Flow Logic
- State Logic
- Parallel Processing
- Failover contingencies
- Crash Mitigation
- Crash Recovery
- Physics
- Electrical energy
- Torque
- Momentum
- Gravitation
- Friction
- Force
- Pressure
- Material Sciences
- Tolerances
- Material Torsion
- Load distribution among materials of different densities
- Critical thinking
- A new application of an existing technology
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Robotics and Drones
- Software and Mobile Applications
- Nonprofit
Program Director (1) – Full-Time Staff
STEM Program Director (1) – Part-Time Staff
Site Supervisor (1) – Part-Time Staff
Instructor (3) – Part-Time Staff
Accounting (1) – Part-Time Staff
University of Miami Student Volunteers – Multiple
Our Team has been providing an inclusive (co-ed) after-school STEM Robotics Program to the young men and women that attend Ponce de Leon Middle School since 2018.
This program is comprised of and led by members who emerged from the public education system in Miami-Dade County who value the impact that mentoring has had on our personal/professional success: most from the same neighborhoods and backgrounds as the children served. 95% of our program participants are Title I students that live in a marginalized community that have been identified as 'low-income' by the U.S. SBA.
Our staff/leadership are comprised of community stakeholders impacted by issues we are addressing. Our team is integrated in defining core values, identifying and prioritizing issues respective to each neighborhood served to determine the appropriate course of action to provide solutions. We will work with community members, organizations and foundations providing similar youth-based programming, posed with the same challenges as those we serve to identify current needs and requests, respective to the children served to provide a structured program to support using qualitative evidence, collected through a combination of feedback from community stakeholders including grassroot staff, teachers, school administrators, parents, elected officials, direct observation of current after-school programming, and an analysis of best practices found in other similar communities and programs. We offer training and resources to develop and advance our mentors that wouldn't otherwise have access to civic and community engagement opportunities or positions of power.
Our organizations leadership, community partners and staff reside and/or previously resided in the communities we are supporting, having or have experienced the same challenges as the children we serve. Through conversation with them, current and past program participants, we will provide a tailored program that best addresses deficiencies and challenges faced by these individuals as well as identifying opportunities for improvement. This allows us to gather an intimate understanding of the needs and wants of those facing the challenges we are committed to addressing. Our decision-making process regarding program development, innovation, program locations, hiring, fundraising and community events are performed collectively with all parties with an emphasis on those individuals impacted the most. We make it a priority to employ and develop people most affected by the issues we address.
We continue to address racial, spatial, and gender inequalities so individuals can strengthen their self-identity and self-efficacy while also working towards empowering young women, breaking through social constructs that “define” how they should act. Our partnership with University of Miami, county commissioners, community centers, the public school system, local businesses and municipalities as well as individuals from similar backgrounds and those that look like those children being served, support our goal to show our staff and participants what is attainable, regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
The Home Team is a multidimensional youth-support program with the mission to measurably improve the lives of Miami-Dade school students through engagement with academic, sports and business leaders. We provide free after-school youth development and enrichment programs with the goal of exposing children to opportunities they otherwise would not be afforded to.
As direct service providers, our structured programming provides academic support, promotes creativity and engagement, encourages meaningful contributions to activities and conversations, provides hot meals and snacks each day which have demonstrated to increase the academic improvement, school attendance, confidence, self-esteem, behavior and leadership skills.
This program will keep up 24 children off the streets, providing 36 days and 75 hours of programming over the course of the funding cycle in a safe after-school setting, where they can learn, play and have fun.
Our program is framed by behavior change theory resulting from behavioral economics, calling for incentivizing full participation to attain maximum benefits. Incentivizing behavior change is an effective means for achieving expected changes when individuals are less likely to be intrinsically motivated, or to have role models for what that behavior change represents. All participants participating in our programs receive awards and prizes on a weekly basis and have opportunities to be selected periodically to receive more substantial gifts and attend various events including shopping sprees, outside meals, sponsorships and field trips based on the child’s participation, attendance and engagement.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
Our plan for becoming financially sustainable will be achieved through recently forged partnerships with the Miami Foundation and Children’s Trust, providing resources and support towards our business operations respective to our grant writing abilities. These new partnerships will improve our ability to become more efficient with regards to collecting and tracking quantitative data to improve our ability to procure long -term state and federal funding. This will allow us to shift more resources towards improving our program development, staffing, increasing our volunteer pool, hiring more support and reaching more children.
These partnerships will support our current staff, program development and procurement of resources by transitioning from an antiquated procedure to a more efficient and impactful grant writing process. Increasing and improving the technology available to us will also aid us in becoming more visible in the community, which has demonstrated as a successful means in engaging with more volunteers, donors and partners.
As a result, we anticipate a more efficient and streamlined consolidation operations process which will allow us to add two additional part-time positions, in the form of support staff at our after-school locations and the ability to raise an additional $50,000 annually.
Our plan to achieve financial sustainability has been successful as we have recently forged partnerships with the Miami Foundation and Children’s Trust this year.
The Miami Foundation is one of the largest local philanthropic organizations in Miami-Dade County, providing civic leadership, community investment and philanthropy.
The Children’s Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of all children and families in Miami-Dade County.
In addition, we have a current partnership with local government committed to ensuring that we continue to have the necessary resources to continue providing our current after-school STEM Programs.