Sponsorships & Employee Volunteers Show Kids “The World”

April 2022

Volunteers from STEM industry open their workplaces and labs for virtual visits, share about their cutting-edge technology, and often feature a surprise guest visit from a pet cat or office puppy to the delight of students. “Thank you for helping us see the world! You are like our mini super-hero!” wrote one enthusiastic student to a scientist from Maze Therapeutics who served as a Science Ambassador, making four virtual visits to the same class over the course of the Fall semester.

Our partnerships with East Bay businesses provide unique openings for elementary and middle school children. As studies have shown, STEM role models and early exposure to science have an important impact on students’ identities and future career plans. This type of exposure and mentorship is essential to helping decrease racial disparities in science and engineering opportunities and achievement.

During the pandemic, our many industry partners have been notably proactive in adapting to the educational needs of students. Those working in biotech and health fields have developed new lessons to help students understand how vaccines and medicines work. Others have led lessons featuring state-of-the-art autonomous driving technology or low-tech, joyful balloon rocket car races.

Whether in person or remote, these scientists and engineers bring enthusiasm, diversity, and their personal stories to convey to young students that they, too, have a place in a STEM field that connects with their own interests.

CRS opens the pathways for industry-based STEM professionals to give back to their community through skills-based volunteering. Some partners plan around hosting an annual Day of Science event for an entire elementary school (in person or virtual), while others lead monthly BASIS lessons, and still others serve as Science Ambassadors making repeat visits to the same classroom over the course of a semester. Some join us as middle school mentors, and others opt to read stories about notable scientists of color to our youngest TK-Grade 2 learners. CRS facilitates the lesson development, training, materials, and logistics to make sure the scientist-teacher-student interactions are engaging and joyful for all.

A peek into just a few examples of the many ways industry partners are sharing their passion for science in local schools this Spring:

Employees from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Port of Oakland, and the Oakland Aviation Museum will host a virtual Oakland Aviation Day. Nearly 250 5th graders will interact with aviation professionals to explore the forces of flight and the ways that an interdependent team of professionals anticipates and responds to adverse winds and turbulence. Students will make and modify paper airplanes as they discover the dynamics of turbulence.>/p>

Zoom screenshot of Inkedport Aviation Day

Meanwhile, two dozen employees from Health Advances will co-host an in-person Day of Science at an elementary school in West Oakland. Hundreds of eager TK-5 students will delight in building catapults, making observational sketches of natural objects, and extracting DNA from strawberries while they laugh and learn together with the diverse and caring scientist visitors.

NGM Bio has just completed co-designing a new lesson with us, focused on the engineering design process and the approval process for a new medicine, using asthma medication as an illustrative example. In this lesson, playdough-based activities help young learners build an understanding of how medicines bind with their target molecules, and they also gain insight into career paths in biotechnology.

From the fundamentals of civil engineering to cellular respiration, from fiber optics to renewable wind energy, amazing industry-based teams are giving students openings into a diverse array of scientific and engineering fields and careers.

As we reflect with gratitude and pride on our past 25 years, our sights are already set on doing even more over the next 25 years. Financial support, sponsorship, and employee engagement from many forward-thinking, community-minded STEM industry partners makes all the difference.