Pedonti earns $175K grant for STEM summer camp
By Cam Adams
Jackson County isn鈥檛 an urban hotbed like the Charlotte鈥檚 and Greensboro鈥檚 of the state are. It doesn鈥檛 have big museums, aquariums or any other spot that might get kids interested in STEM.
That鈥檚 where 甜瓜视频app assistant professor Sarah Pedonti and her team want to step in this summer.
Pedonti received a $175,412 grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a North Carolina-based organization that provides funding for STEM education, to help fund the Our Natural World/Nuestro Mundo Natural summer camp.
WCU associate professor Derek Becker is the grant鈥檚 co-principal investigator.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really exciting,鈥� Pedonti said. 鈥淚 think there is some building momentum for getting some funding and opportunities into rural areas like Jackson County that I think can really be a gamechanger for getting rural kids into STEM education, getting them into STEM careers.
Our Natural World/Nuestro Mundo Natural will be a four-week summer camp where Jackson County Public Schools K-2 students will participate in hands-on activities designed to showcase all aspects of scientific inquiry.
Some themes students will be diving into are astronomy, waterways and ecology and agriculture and biology. Participants will also attend three 鈥渕eet a scientist鈥� opportunities, three family engagement nights and two roundtables.
Pedonti developed the concept of the camp with support from WCU associate professor Enrique Gomez, associate instructor Karen Kandl and retired faculty member David Claxton.
鈥淢y hope is that kids will do this camp for a couple years, this is a three-year opportunity, and then go on to maintain that interest in science throughout elementary, middle and high school, and hopefully, go into those kinds of careers when they get to college,鈥� Pedonti said.
While Pedonti and her team will help put together content from the camp, WCU undergraduate students with experience in STEM and teaching will work alongside Jackson County Public Schools teachers to teach.
Over the next three years, Pedonti is hoping to follow up with participants through the fifth grade, measuring their science end-of-grade test scores with children who didn鈥檛 attend the camp.
They will also be collecting surveys from the children and their families, hoping to see improvement in the kids鈥� interest in STEM and STEM careers.
Applications for Our Natural World/Nuestro Mundo Natural can be submitted starting in March, prioritizing students who are English language learners and children with academic needs before taking applications from other community members.
For more information about the camp, contact Pedonti at spedonti@wcu.edu.
