Kindergarten student doing homework at the lab making it look too easy for her!!

“It is all about Drill and Practice.

Students have to practice subtraction, addition, multiplication and division daily, to minimize the summer brain drain, and that’s exactly what took place here this summer!”

Michael Batie Ph.D.

This Summer of 2018 began with a collaboration between Dr. Michael Batie and Ms. Yolande Beckles, Community Educator, and proprietors of The Knowledge Shop LA and STEM54 respectively.

They came together to offer their expertise to the local community, families and students to deliver a Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) based Summer School.

Participating students received two hours of Science and two hours of Math instruction daily.

Daniel Auzenne and Amanuel Araya, our intern staff are Pre-Med students studying at the University of Southern California.They instructed our students in science and Dr. Batie provided for 2 hours of Common Core Math instruction daily.

Our mission was to ensure that our students were kept abreast of the Common Core Math Standards

and the Next Generation Science Standards during the summer months where students can lose significant amounts of subject competency.

Students that attended this summer were in grades PreK- 12, ages 5-17. Our day began at 7am. We served break- fast until 9am. After which hands-on Math and Science instruction took place.

Lunch was freshly prepared in-house with a full menu of healthy options for all students, including afternoon snacks.

The feedback we received from our parents were that our students did not ask for supper all summer!!!

Everyday the students were taken to the library. Summer Reading was a vital part of our daily routine.

Our students clocked over 2,000 hours of reading.

When you have a range of students from many communities and diverse families. It is important to give them a true experience of the community they live in. We created hands on learning based on the STEM model. Science took place not just in the lab.

The Los Angeles Public Libraries had 8 weeks of summer science programs at the Angela Mesa Branch. We partnered with them by taking our students there. Our schol- ars built robots and made slime. The Santa Monica Library offered Earth Sciences which included activities around Dinosaurs, the Mad Science Fire and Ice, and Bubble Science. The Los Angeles County Library offered Asteroids from Outer Space, see photos be- low.

We also partnered with both the Microsoft Youth Sparks Camp and the Apple Summer Camp where they hosted a field Trip for our students.

To top off the summer, Microsoft Community Development’s Karla Torres sponsored 3 or- ganizations for the Back to School Resources Night. All of our students received Back to School Back packs full of school supplies and other fun equipment and items. Microsoft also provided activities to include,

“Make Your Story”, using MS Powerpoint, “Minecraft “, Coding and Business Planning. They were also able to play with state of the art X Box One during breaks. Every child received certificates of completion in their program. This was important for their portfolio once they returned back to school thus demonstrating to teachers that they continued learning over the vacation months.

Apple Camp this year provided Telling Stories with Clips that were made in-store. Robotics, Coding, Beat Making and Song Writing were also available. Apple also presented T-shirts and certificates to our students

To further complement more STEM learning, we visited the La Brea Tar Pits, Kidspace, Fowler Museum, California Science Center and California African American Museum.

Math and Science activities will continue throughout our 2018-2019 calendar. We have created a program for parents “Empowering Parents in Math - Helping your Child Soar” to assist parents in their child’s math acumen. If you would like further information on this and our Mobile Math and Science Lab offerings please contact our office at 424-732-7500.

Students from 5 -17 attend our summer camp to learn.

We gave them 60% academica and 40% enrichment.

Our motto is “Work Hard Play Hard!” and they certainly got to do both.

The students from your summer camp are a true joy to teach. We enjoy watching them grow over the summer. They always come back with a smile to every session.

Karla Torres, Community Development - Microsoft