SACRAMENTO, CA (Eagle News) — With the collaborative efforts of La Familia Counseling Center and the Metro Chamber’s Leadership of Sacramento Class of 2017, La Familia opens its doors to the surrounding community with the grand opening of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Center.
Before the opening of the STEM center, extensive amounts of research and explorations about other STEM programs were made. Through a grant given to the La Familia STEM Center, 30 girls, called Technolochicas, from different schools within the Sacramento City Unified School District were able to participate as the first class in the program.
The vision of the program is to provide free services for underserved students in order to give them the same opportunity and same advantage that other students can afford. With this in mind, a comprehensive STEM experience was created with three main areas of focus: coding, Legos/robotics, and science.
The curriculum and lessons were centered around these three main areas with the use of Scratch, a free programming language and online community to learn more about coding and the use of Computer Science in a Box, a resource used to learn how a computer works.
The program coordinator, Mao Vang, alongside the co-coordinator/co-teacher and three interns have worked with the Technolochicas to create engaging and enriching opportunities. As the program continues to grow, it will be open to both boys and girls starting April 10th, through STEM open lab. The goal is to continue to grow not only in numbers but also in the resources and knowledge that students have access to at the STEM Center.
(Eagle News Service, Macy Membrere, EBC Sacramento Bureau)