The world is changing. What skills are important now are different than 20 years ago and education needs to change with it. Basic science needs to be understood by all Americans just as much as math or English. Science will be what finds the cure for cancer, solves world hunger, and ends large scale food waste, and it is also involved in your grocery shopping and driving your car. In a world where science is so important to the success and daily life of humans, it is often undervalued in K-8 education. 

 

EpiSTEM, founded by Jiya Jha, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by local high school students that is working to bring more resources for science in local K-8 schools. The non-profit primarily runs hands-on labs in local elementary school classrooms. For example, labs are being regularly completed in McAuliffe Elementary, Laurelglen Elementary, Whitney Elementary, and Van Horn Elementary, with constant plans for expansion into more schools. These labs are not just performed in individual classrooms but through events such as “STEM Night” at McAuliffe and Van Horn that show these labs to the entire student body at once and through McAuliffe’s before school program. These labs cost the schools nothing and allow for science concepts to be explained in a more understandable way to students without sacrificing the time of their teacher. The labs allow local elementary students to truly understand the concepts in a fun manner. Correlating science with enjoyment instead of through textbooks creates a positive relationship with science in local youth. This positive relationship through future nurturing can develop into a passion, which will follow and lead them the rest of their life, creating the next generation of innovators, critical thinkers, and problem solvers that can support our local community.

 

A great example of a lab by EpiSTEM that supported the next generation of innovators is the Rube Goldberg Machine Lab done by a 3rd-grade class at McAuliffe Elementary. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a chain reaction machine designed to perform a simple task such as flicking a spoon. In the lab the students were given a week to design and make a Rube-Goldberg machine out of cardboard, plastic straws, plastic cups, plastic spoons, pipe cleaners, and tape. This lab allows for the creativity and imagination of the students to be used while teaching them about the design process. The students have to make a sketch and figure out how to implement that sketch in real life with limited materials. Giving them the control to implement their idea makes them so much more invested and passionate which allows them to learn better. As a 3rd grader from McAuliffe said, “I like it because I made it.” It also gives them a healthy place to fail as their ideas are not always going to work and our lab leaders are there to help them adjust from their mistakes, which is vital in science but also in life. 

 

If you are interested in learning more about EpiSTEM you can visit their website at www.epistemlearning.org or their instagram epistem_learning. If you are a teacher interested in working with EpiSTEM or someone wanting to donate, please contact their Commissioner of Public Relations Thomas Finn Roger at Thomas.F.Rogers.EpiSTEM@gmail.com  If you are a parent interested in EpiSTEM and interested in EpiSTEM working with your child's teacher, also contact their Commissioner of Public Relations with your child's classroom teacher’s contact information. If you are a high school student looking to volunteer with EpiSTEM, please go to their Instagram page or website to find the lab leader application form.