Weekly Media Roundup: May 8, 2019

Local Students Compete in National Coding Competition, WZDX (Alabama)

Students from an afterschool program run by the CARE Center in Madison County, Alabama recently traveled to Facebook’s headquarters in California to demonstrate their coding skills. The afterschool program was a finalist in Facebook’s Engineer for the Week program, which exposes students to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through hands-on projects such as designing video games to highlight social issues. “I think the important part of afterschool programs is we’re opening horizons,” CARE Center Executive Director Andrea Bridges told WZDX. “We’re using real life situations and real life experiences to drive home school-day lessons.”

Growing Young Minds: After-School Program Provides Safe Haven for Hundreds, NBC Los Angeles (California)

The Growing Young Minds afterschool program in Los Angeles provides 80 students in kindergarten through fifth grade with a safe learning environment, homework help, character development and exposure to new experiences. Students take part in activities ranging from sports to arts to STEM experiments. “Being here, parents feel safe because they know [their kids are] in the right place and they’re learning something,” Ketchum Downtown YMCA Associate Program Director Jose Rivera told NBC Los Angeles. “This is a safe haven for all the kids in the program. It’s a way for them to be doing something that’s beneficial to their lives.”

The Opportunity Project is Expanding After-School Development Options for Area Students, Tulsa World (Oklahoma)

The Opportunity Project in Tulsa, Oklahoma works to increase access to afterschool programs for middle school students to help them discover new interests that will motivate them in high school. Their “AfterOpp” initiative connects schools with community organizations to start clubs, including chess, dance, and eSports. The Opportunity Project also works to weave social emotional learning into afterschool programs. “I talk to the kids, and they tell me things they could be doing or would be doing if they weren’t in some type of after-school program,” dance club leader Josiah Kelly told Tulsa World. “Sometimes home life is not conducive or the most safe. So the fact that we get to offer that, some type of comfortable, safe place, is very important.”

Cool Schools: Pierre Moran Middle School Program Mixes Math and Music, ABC 57 (Indiana)

Through a collaboration between a school district, a performing arts center, and the Notre Dame Center for Civic Innovation, students in an afterschool program in Elkhart, Indiana are learning to write music and build their own instruments. The program explores the relationship between music and math. Students learn about the connection between instrument length and pitch, types of scales and how to craft instruments to create a range of sounds. “I personally love music,” eighth grader Demi Brown told ABC 57. “So when I got to make the instrument it made me think I could do this at home to make more of a variety of music instead of the same thing over and over.”