About STEMspire
STEMspire's goal is to engage students in science, technology, engineering, and math to inspire low-income middle school students and improve classroom learning. In order to achieve this goal, students will learn using STEM kits we develop meant to aid in a teacher's STEM lesson, encouraging low-income middle school students to spark an interest in STEM. Allowing students a path to pursue a career in STEM, helping students follow their dreams, and increasing the diversity in the STEM field
Our Purpose
Uninterest in STEM among low-income middle school students puts low-income students at a disadvantage and decreases diversity within STEM fields. “Nationally, three in five children in families with higher incomes (62%) participate in a STEM activity in their after-school program twice per week or more, but just 56% of children in families with low incomes do.”(blackengineer.com.) Low-income middle students feel unmotivated to learn about STEM because their school doesn't have the resources to make their curriculum more hands-on, engaging, and inspiring. Since a large majority of minority students attend low-income middle schools, leading to the lack of minorities in the STEM field.
Why Is Our Problem Significant?
This is a significant problem because many students don't end up pursuing careers in STEM because they don't currently see themselves reflected in the STEM field and no one is introducing them to STEM in an engaging way. Without engaging science and math classrooms in middle school, students won’t be able to gain the spark they need to inspire a future in the STEM field. If the STEM classrooms aren’t engaging enough, the students who don’t have an interest in STEM will suffer because they will be disinterested in learning and then their grades will suffer. We create kits that we provide to low-income middle schools to engage students in STEM classrooms, then more students will learn more, do better, and possibly gain interest in the STEM field. The more we can inspire a more diverse future in STEM the better because we are missing out on so many ideas because at the moment STEM is mostly from the perspective of the white Male.
