On Saturday I attended a STEM camp hosted by STEM Global Action at the Buffalo Soldiers Museum. STEM Global Action first began as STEM Global Action, a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Calvin Mackey, a former Tulane professor from New Orleans. After learning his sons were losing interest in science at school he and his wife, a pharmacist, came together to build hands-on STEM activities. Ten years later they are engaging families with those hands-on STEM activities to develop their 21st-century critical thinking skills and engage kids into being better creators, innovators and entrepreneurs.
“The goal of STEM Global Action is to eliminate the barriers of entry to STEM for children of color in our communities,” said Chief Strategy Officer, Tyra Metoyer. “When we start a STEM Houston affiliate, the idea would be that we would have STEM activities once a month and it would rotate around the city so that it can be in their own communities, recreational centers and churches. That way we are eliminating the barriers to youth participating.”
Too often when we think of STEM programs, the target population of those involved are kids who have great grades or who already have many opportunities at hand. This past Saturday STEM Global Action partnered with Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving current and former incarcerated persons and their families who brought in more than 100 children in the Angel Tree Program to take part in the STEM camp held at the Buffalo Soldiers Museum.
Jasmine Scott, a concerned parent of a 4th grader, expressed her appreciation for program opportunities like these in the community.
“I was in juvenile growing up, and I never experienced stuff like this until I had a mentor with HCAP (Harris County Aquatics Program),” said Scott. “My mentor would take me to experience things that were out of our cultural norm, so that’s what I’m doing for my kids because I don’t want my kids to go through the system like I did. Their dad is in prison and if you don’t expose children to something different than drugs or the streets, then how are they going to know that it’s something better out there?”
The camp focused on STEM activities to inspire children to become curious about careers in science, math and technology that they may not normally hear about in their school.
“Today we are doing hearts and circulatory system. The kids are learning different concepts and are able to touch and work with various activities that concern the heart,” said programs coordinator, Keelyn Myers. “Today they are dissecting a real sheep’s heart and every child is going to walk away with a mechanical heart that replicates our own heart.”
Troy Privott attended the STEM camp when he was 12 years old and credits much of his success today to his attendance.
“I was about 12 or 13 years old and I just gravitated towards all the fun activities you can do with science and math. Growing up you only hear about becoming a lawyer, teacher, or doctor, but there were so many opportunities that I just wasn’t exposed to at that age,” said Privott.
The turning point for Privott came when he heard Mackey giving a lecture.
“I heard him speaking at a college and I thought to myself this guy’s kind of cool, he’s making science sound cool. Prior to hearing Mackey talk, science never sounded cool to me. But after speaking with him, I was curious and he took advantage of that curiosity which led me to get involved with everything that was going on,” said Privott.
Privott went on to complete his undergrad at Howard University in Washington, D.C. where he studied mechanical engineering. He is currently in grad school at Southern Methodist University studying system engineering and management.
“We don’t want the students to walk away just knowing that they dealt with the heart. We want them to have the critical thinking skills to be encouraged and engaged enough to learn more,” said Myers. “We are not going to give them everything today, but they can be more creative, and they can find more things. We are just turning a light bulb on so that they can go further in being the next innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs.”
