Youth Innovation Club is now
E3 Learning Partners
Science Project Mentoring Event
For detail report: "Science Project Advisors Project Evaluation"
On October 4th and 5th, 2018, Partners in Education and the Youth Innovation Club unveiled a collaboration with one main goal in mind: get students excited about science, specifically their science projects. To do so, we recruited 30 scientists and engineers to play the role of science project advisor for nearly 600 total students on the Santa Barbara and La Colina Junior High campuses.
The 36 scientists and engineers—all volunteers, nearly half of whom are women—ranged from graduate students and, DataCloud, Sonos, and Transphorm, Inc. Over the course of two days, they interacted with small groups of students, listening to project ideas, and offering suggestions.UCSB, to professionals representing companies such as Cognixionfrom researchers
In describing the experience, one student said, “I think that the best part of having a science project advisor was having a real person with good experience in science to bounce or reflect my ideas off of.”
“They gave me very helpful suggestions on how to apply my projects results to the real world,” said another.
A third student said, “It made feel a bit more confident about my project.”
“I feel every scientist should be engaged in outreach,” said one of the science project advisors and a UCSB graduate student focusing on microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycling. “It provides younger students with a chance to be inspired to do science by meeting real-life role models, increasing the accessibility of science to the public.”
On Oct. 17th, 2018, Youth Innovation Club, Partners in Education, and Apeel Sciences hosted a special event, “Science Night at Apeel”. At the event, scientists from Apeel provided guidance and mentorship to students on their science projects, and also gave tours of their facilities and described what it is that they do! This event was meant to help showing Santa Barbara area middle school students how science works and how it solves many of the world’s problems. Students left feeling more prepared and inspired!
