Eduporium Helps Nebraska Boys & Girls Club with New Makerspace
(PRWEB) July 25, 2018 -- Recently, Eduporium teamed up with a midwestern chapter of the Boys & Girls Club to help them secure STEM tools for launching a brand-new makerspace this coming fall. After working with another prominent afterschool organization for much of the last two years, the Watertown, Ma. company was ready to help provide this organization with some discounted technology, inspiration, and whatever other assistance they needed.
Members of the Eduporium team formed a partnership with Kristen Ogea, who works at the Boys & Girls Club of the Midlands in Omaha, Neb. Her and her team, led by Unit Director, Julie Knight, are in the final stages of preparation for launching their new makerspace within their facility. Set to open its doors on the first day of school, the makerspace will serve students in all K-12 grades. With such a diverse age group and a lot to get done before the end of the summer, the EdTech experts at Eduporium were excited to offer Kristen and her team some help.
“We want to create leaders and problem solvers in our communities,” said Boys & Girls Club STEM Director, Andile Mahlangeni-Byndon. “Our hope is that with all of the amazing things we will be offering out of our Innovation Room, students will leave the clubs educated and empowered.”
Although she had a lot of exciting ideas, a lot of the planning experience was also new to Kristen. The Boys & Girls Club in Omaha is actually in the process of building four brand-new clubs, including this one, bringing the total in the immediate area to 13. Their hope is to be a bit different than what Boys & Girls Clubs are traditionally known for, however, and are striving to provide a much more prominent emphasis on STEM.
“We realize that STEM is a huge part of the future for our kids in almost every aspect of their growth,” said Kristen. “The tools that they will have the opportunity to learn and work with here at the Boys & Girls Club is a first. They will get to experience drones, coding, 3D printing, robotics, engineering, science, and many different areas of STEM that will undoubtedly open so many other doors for them in the future.”
Some of those STEM tools, which the Boys & Girls Club will be purchasing from Eduporium, include 3Doodlers, Ozobot Evo, Sphero Mini, and the littleBits STEAM Set among others. Kristen is hoping to leverage these tools and this new opportunity to encourage the students to learn, make mistakes, and realize they have the ability within themselves to change the world. Once she discovered she could purchase pretty much everything she wanted from Eduporium’s store, she said she started feeling better about what lied ahead.
“Honestly, I had never heard of Eduporium. I started Googling reputable STEM stores and it was one of the first websites that came up,” she said. “I read some reviews and decided to take a look at the website and what they had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised at the selection and prices of the hundreds of STEM and MakerEd items on their store.”
Kristen, Andile, and the rest of the team will be receiving a variety of technology tools from Eduporium, but they're not quite sure what they're most excited about yet. They are, however, interested in integrating music technology into the makerspace, which will allow students to really enjoy a well-rounded STEAM experience while they’re challenged to develop their problem-solving skills for use in future careers.
“The music and arts help balance the STEM side of things and creates more of a well-rounded learning environment,” Andile said.
Overall, Kristen, Andile, and Julie want the students who use the makerspace to keep coming back and, in order to ensure that, they really want to reach them at their level and engage them in activities that are both meaningful to them now and potentially meaningful in their future careers as well. By using STEM tools, the team at the Boys & Girls Club in Omaha is hoping to leave each student with the true desire to learn and grow to their full potential.
If you’re starting a similar program or just need some guidance, feel free to reach out to the experts at Eduporium anytime! They can be contacted by phone at 1 (877) 252-0001, email at [email protected], or on Twitter!
Ahmed Shareb, Eduporium, https://www.eduporium.com/, +1 6176007230, [email protected]
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