For the past year, Redmond Area Park and Recreation District has partnered with Redmond Parks Foundation and the Central Oregon STEM Hub to incorporate STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – themes throughout our programs and events.

Our most significant STEM initiative has been the new materials and curriculum our leaders are implementing in our Adventure Quest program.  Adventure Quest is a before and after school program at four Redmond schools to keep kids active and engaged, playing and learning even when they’re not in class.  Last year, the Redmond Parks Foundation received a generous grant of $5,000 from the Chambers Family Foundation to incorporate STEM programming in Adventure Quest.

The Chambers Family Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation based in Eugene, whose philanthropic works build stronger communities through the support of arts, education, medical, health, and human needs. “We are a family foundation with four generations of business leaders. We focus on communities where we can leverage our grants with others to make a difference,” explained one of their trustees. When asked why the Foundation believes that introducing school-aged kids to science, technology, engineering, and math themes and activities is important, the Trustee described, We see students as future leaders and STEM programs are essential to help develop the critical thinking skills.”

As this was the first year we were actively engaged in seeking out STEM materials and learning opportunities for our AQ participants, we wanted to make the best use of the funds to reach the widest number of our participants and benefit all of our school sites.  We reached out to the Central Oregon STEM Hub, a state-funded support organization that works with the school district and other broadly-defined educators, for their expert tips and recommendations.  They recommended hands-on experiential learning techniques and encouraging creative play with STEM materials. They suggested getting kids involved early in cutting-edge subjects like circuitry, environmental technology such as solar and wind, building, and even coding.  Informally, we also sought advice from local school district staff who reinforced this input (“Coding is the next big thing”).

The Central Oregon STEM Hub has a Lending Library consisting of pre-packaged STEM-themed teaching activities in boxes that educators can check out for a few weeks at a time and returned.  On a more competitive basis, they also have a popular 3D printer that can be checked out for a week at a time.  Our Recreation Program Coordinators checked out a number of Lending Library activities during the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year to experiment with in the Adventure Quest classrooms to see what types of themes resonated most with kids, and what kinds of materials and equipment classroom Leaders could train with and implement quickly and effectively.  We determined that the 3D printer was too advanced and took too long to hold the sustained interest of our youngest participants but other tools, like snap circuits and KLUTZ circuit clay were instant winners.  With these tools, kids can follow age appropriate instructions to build specific projects, or they can freely create their own working electrical systems.

This trial and error process narrowed down our search to a number of innovative tools that make learning cutting-edge tech skills fun and engaging, even for our youngest participants.  We also focused on durability and sustainability to seek out materials that can be used again and again, by all our kids and across all our school sites, with easy to find replacement parts.  For example, a construction set of PVC pipe cut into different lengths, with different elbows and joints, helps kids learn building principles through trial and error. 

Our Leaders have started implementing STEM-themed activities in our classrooms, and making materials available to the participants for solo and group exploration and kids are having a blast.  “We built the first piece together,” said Recreation Program Coordinator Tyler Best of an inventor kit project, “it was a button that you push and it flips up a lever.  Then I stepped back and the kids took it from there.  This one kid came up with a ramp, so the lever pushed a marble down the chute.  But then someone else made a little catapult so the lever set off the catapult, which launched the marble to the ramp and down the chute.” 

Adventure Quest Coordinator Brandy Princehorn says this is typical of the leaders’ approach to implementing the STEM materials.  “We give them the instructions and examples, do one or two things together, and then step back.  When kids struggle, the leader will model critical thinking by re-reading the instruction booklet with the kids.  We don’t just show them the answer so they have to learn to troubleshoot and solve problems that come up.”

The Chambers Family Foundation grant has benefited the 560+ participants in our Adventure Quest program so far during the 2017-2018 academic year and will continue to grow and shape this program into the future.  “We appreciate everything we’ve been able to do with it so far, and are excited to see it continue over the years with new groups of kids,” says Princehorn. “We purposefully picked things that could be updated and reused each year.”

Implementing science, technology, engineering, and math activities in Adventure Quest also inspired us to create two new STEM-themed events, free to everyone in the community.  These events – Aviation Day and Touch-A-Truck – aim to inspire STEM curiosity in kids K-8th and connect them with local educators, experts, and companies that value STEM education and skills.  Aviation Day offered hands-on drone instruction and participation of flight programs and the radio-control airplane club to show kids the aviation-related careers and hobbies that boost our local economy.  It was a big hit and drew nearly 300 kids and their families.  Touch-a-Truck will aim to engage the youngest kids (Pre-k – 2nd) by offering exploration and experiential learning opportunities with construction, transportation, and first responder vehicles; arts and crafts with auto parts, and reading time with transportation-related books.  This event will celebrate STEM week – a week of science, technology, engineering, and math activities by many organizations throughout Central Oregon. 

In this way, the Chambers Family Foundation STEM grant – although the funds were only used for STEM programming in Adventure Quest – has inspired us to implement STEM themes in our education and enrichment programs and our free community events as well.  As such, we have developed contacts with science, technology, and engineering experts in our area who will hopefully help us broaden our reach and sustain this momentum.