Across the U.S., two in five Black and Latino students say they enjoy STEM classes and aspire to go to college. But less than 3% of those students enroll in advanced STEM courses, according to EdTrust.
To Diego Uriburu, executive director and co-founder of Identity Inc. in Gaithersburg, the numbers represent a tragedy.
“It’s not an issue of people not having the capabilities, it’s [an issue of] tapping into them,” said Uriburu, who heads the nonprofit focused on creating opportunities for Latino youth.
Identity and the nonprofit KID Museum in Bethesda are tapping into the potential of Latino students by piloting a STEM literacy program for Montgomery County public school students in second and third grade with the support of $704,000 in federal funding, the organizations announced at an event on Tuesday at the KID Museum.
“This program between KID Museum and Identity that we’re launching today is not a nice to have — it is a need to have,” said J. Antonio Tijerino, president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and a member of the KID Museum Board of Directors.
The organizations will pilot the yearlong program in four “high need” elementary schools. The KID Museum will train Identity’s youth program development staff to create culturally responsive curriculum and to deliver “high-quality, hands-on” STEM learning to students, according to a statement from the KID Museum, an educational maker space for children.
The newly trained staff will provide hands-on learning for 100 students during out-of-school time in the designated elementary schools. The program also includes a parent engagement program to help introduce STEM learning opportunities at home, Uriburu said at the Tuesday event.
“It’s a train-the-trainers model, so the knowledge stays within the community,” Uriburu said. “Our staff will be trained and therefore it’s sustainable.”
As part of the program, students will participate in activities such as making cardboard characters that spin and turn with cardboard gears and learning how circuits work as well as maker projects that incorporate books with Latino characters.
Savannah Fetterolf, senior manager of teaching at KID Museum, said the partnership allows the museum to work with a group already involved with the Latino community to co-design curriculum and develop culturally responsive activities.
The KID Museum and Identity have worked together for nearly 10 years, KID Museum’s founder and CEO Cara Lesser said. The organizations are now able to increase their partnership thanks to the $704,000 congressional earmark obtained with the help of U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen.
A congressional earmark is federal spending for a specific governmental or nonprofit organization included in appropriations bills. Cardin and Van Hollen said Tuesday the pilot could serve as a model for other communities around the country to help address achievement gaps in STEM for historically underserved youth.
“There’s no greater thing that you can do than unleash the talent of our young people,” Cardin said.
Uriburu said he’s seen the impact on students who have participated in KID Museum programs that involved Identity.
“Young people became more confident … young people also became better at solving problems,” Uriburu said. “They became more persistent.”
Highlighting that U.S. students’ test scores in math and science haven’t improved in over a decade, Tijerino noted that failing to address achievement gaps negatively impacts students as well as their families, communities and even the nation.
Uriburu said he’s hoping to prove through the pilot program that achievement gaps can be reduced.
“It’s not just for Latinos — so many Black and brown students, their potential is not tapped into,” Uriburu said. “[We want] to show that with simple educational methods and cultural competency, we can really unleash the potential that young people have.”
