Martin Luther King Youth Center, Bridgewater NJ

Partnering with Martin Luther Youth Center (MLKYC) has been a huge success. Located in Bridgewater, New Jersey, we were first introduced to this center in November, 2022 when we volunteered with Code Ninjas to teach students basics of Coding skills during their after-school program. We found that some students were eager to learn, but have had very limited opportunities in the past.

After speaking with the Executive Director, Ms.Rajni Chopra, the STEM Scholars team planned an extensive hands-on summer camp program to focus on mentorship and problem-solving for July and August, 2023 and 2024. During this program, students aged 5-13 years were divided into small groups of 4-5 students and given a STEM hands-on challenge every week. They were introduced to the Design Thinking process where planning, problem-solving, communication, team work and collaboration was emphasized. Following this, they were given the items for a timed challenge. Eventually, all teams could showcase their final product and discuss what worked for them, what was challenging and what they would improve on next time. 

Science and engineering concepts, such as sink and float, bridge designs, building/skyscraper designs were discussed. Challenges included building a boat that would float using foil that could hold the most pennies; using toothpicks and marshmallows to create the tallest structure; building a bridge using only paper and 4 books for weight; constructing a floating raft using popsicle craft sticks; stacking 10 plastic cups to make the tallest structure, using 15 index cards only to build a free-standing tall structure. To emphasize the importance of team work, additional challenges were introduced, such as no speaking during the actual building process, using a elastic band and pipe cleaners to lift cups. It has been amazing to see how engaged and excited the students were!