Education
Verizon Foundation Grant Funds Space Foundation Program for Boys & Girls Club of the Pikes Peak Region
Written by: developer
Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, the Space Foundation will offer a new program for Boys & Girls Club of the Pikes Peak Region at its Discovery Center in Colorado Springs.
Six Tinker Space workshops will be held between November 2016 and May 2017, specifically for Boys & Girls Club of the Pikes Peak Region. Boys & Girls Clubs of America serve an ethnically diverse population, and 65 percent of Club youth are eligible for free or reduced price school lunches, an important indicator of low-income status, compared to 50 percent of public school students nationally.
The two-hour Tinker Space workshops will be held on Saturdays at the Discovery Center, and delivered by the Space Foundation’s accredited educators, all of whom are former classroom master teachers.
Tinker Space is based on the Space Foundation’s public Tesla’s Toolbox program, which includes projects such as:
- App development
- Robotics
- Coding
- 3D design and printing
- GIS in everyday life
- Raspberry Pi
- Design challenges
- Kinetic reactions
Space Foundation education programs support organic workforce development by building a pipeline of future workers skilled in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The Tinker Space program emphasizes teamwork, with a focus on communication, collaboration, problem solving, developing leadership skills and implementing 21st century skills to solve a challenge that has real-world application.
Opened in October 2012, the Space Foundation Discovery Center is designed from the ground up to be a STEM-purposed education center serving Colorado, and through distance delivery technologies, the nation and world. Philanthropic giving, such as the Verizon Foundation grant, is a primary source of funding for Space Foundation programs that support skilled workforce development. Learn more about Space Foundation education programs at www.DiscoverSpace.org.
This article is part of Space Watch: December 2016 (Volume: 15, Issue: 12).
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