2019 YALSA/Dollar General Summer Learning Resources Grant

Katie Cheramie By Katie Cheramie, Area/Branch Librarian, Lafourche Parish Public Library August 14, 2019

Lockport Branch Public Library was very grateful to be selected for the 2019 YALSA/Dollar General Summer Learning Resources Grant. With this grant funding, we were able to provide 6 programs throughout the summer to the central area of Lafourche Parish. The central area of Lafourche Parish includes the town of Lockport, the town of Bayou Blue, along with the small community of Gheens, all located in the southernmost part of Louisiana. The 6 programs focused on exposing teens to STEAM activities, and to generate interest in that field of study.  The 6 programs were as followed:

  • Eyes on the Stars: DIY Telescope- Using the summer reading program theme, teens learned about engineering, working as a team, and construction design to build a Dobsonian telescope.
  • Bilingual Hybrid Media Pop-up Books- Teens explored 19th century science, sci-fi, and storytelling, and integrated 21st century technologies to create hybrid media pop-up books. They also used creative writing to mix stories of the past with story-telling technologies of multiple centuries in both Spanish and English.
  • Coding 101 (Part 1): Participants learned the coding basics and experimented with different aspects of web page design.
  • Coding 101 (Part 2): Participants took what they learned in part one of Coding 101 to make a multi-media digital work of art.
  • My Planet Rover with Lego Mindstorms: Participants worked as a group to make functional robots with Lego Mindstorms (a building and coding robotics Lego kit) while learning about interplanetary travel, and the future of space exploration.
  • STEAM Squad: Clean H2O: Teens attended this educational seminar on the importance of clean water with a tutorial on how to construct a water purification system using Green Science’s Clean Water Science kits.

Type: Active
Age: Middle school
Optimal size: 6-10
Estimated cost: $100+
Planning time: 5+ hours
Frequency: One-time

Learning outcomes

The goal of these programs was to educate the teens of our rural community on the different aspects of the STEAM fields, as well as introduce them to engineering, mathematical practices, and the importance of sustainability in a non-formal and fun way.

Instructions

Each program was hosted by a Lockport Branch Library staff member. Each program was held for an hour. Planning for these programs were done several weeks earlier, to ensure all our programs ran smoothly and to ensure staff was knowledgeable on how to operate different components of the kits. Prior to the summer reading program, we shared fliers on our social media pages and in our branch to generate interest. When teens came to register for our summer reading program, we encouraged them to sign up for these programs to make them aware of all the programs we offered with the help of this grant funding. We were able to introduce our community to multi-media art projects, coding, robotics, and sustainability practices.

 

Evaluation

Our goal was to educate the youth of our community in a fun and non-formal way. We learned that most participants found out about the programs while signing up for our summer reading program. From the participants’ feedback, it is evident that they learned about new technologies and how to creatively combine art and science. Participants stated that these programs inspired them to conduct further research in the STEAM fields, and sparked interest in these work fields. Participants seemed to enjoy the programs, stating that they enjoyed participating in new STEAM-related programs over the summer.

In the future, we would like some of these programs to travel to school events in our parish, such as school job fairs, to reach more teens of Lafourche Parish. We hope to also partner with our local Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (LSU Ag Center, which provides Louisiana citizens with research-based educational information that will improve their lives and economic well-being1) to offer more programs about the importance of health and sustainability.

Other resources

1 https://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/administration/about-us

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