Westside Communities Alliance

A partnership between Atlanta's westside communities and institutions of higher education.

Archives for June 2013

Washington Park Community Service with GT OMED Students

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Early on a Saturday morning, 12 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Georgia Tech students – OMED (Office of Minority Educational Development) Challenge counselors with Andre Dickens, Assistant Director of Outreach Initiatives with OMED – met at Ashby Circle Playlot ready to volunteer with the Washington Park Community Club and Neighborhood Association, led by Christi Jackson. Some volunteers even walked from Tech’s campus to be there.

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The first order of duty was to canvass the Washington Park neighborhood to complete a survey of: vacant properties, senior citizens, pet-owners, home-owners v. renters, and structures with fire damage.

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After canvassing, the students began cleaning up the park. Located near a ravine, the park is plagued with stormwater surges rushing through the area. Many of the tree roots suffer are exposed from soil run-off and the grassy areas are littered with broken glass and debris making it unsafe for actual play. West Atlanta Watershed Alliance arranged mulch to be delivered and students covered the exposed roots to provide more stabilization. Other students worked to pick up trash, broken glass, and some interesting car parts that were found on the playground.

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See the entire photo album on our Facebook page

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Communicating Science to the Public

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Dr. Jennifer Leavey, Integrated Sciences Curriculum Coordinator, College of Sciences, GA Tech

 

In preparation for the Atlanta Science Festival to be held March 22-29, 2014 in Centennial Olympic Park, students in this course will develop communication skills and scientific expertise in the context of designing, creating, implementing, and assessing informal science education exhibits or demonstrations. The students will bring their demonstrations to Westside K-12 schools to  complement classroom science instruction and assess the effectiveness of each project in meeting learning objectives.

 

If you are an Honors Program student interested in taking the course (BIOL2803), find registration information here.

Project ENGAGE Mentor Match Ceremony & Luncheon

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At a luncheon on Monday June 17th, 2013 in Georgia Tech’s U.A. Whitaker Biomedical Engineering building, 12 students from B.E.S.T. Academy and Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy (CSKYWLA) were matched up with their mentors and respective laboratories. After spending the first two weeks of the program in the classroom learning proper laboratory protocol and an intensive science curriculum, the students participated in a speed dating process geared at matching students to mentors. Today, they were given their white laboratory coats during a candle-lighting and reveal ceremony.

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Project ENGAGE (Engaging New Generations at Georgia Tech through Engineering) is a new internship program that pays local high school students to actively participate in current scientific research under the guidance of Master’s and PhD students and faculty members. The students were chosen after a selection process that included creating a resume, providing reference letters, and complete an in-person interview. The internship will continue throughout the 2013-2014 school year and involves two faculty members, one from each academy. The goal of the program is two-fold: to raise high-school student awareness of the biotechnology world through hands-on research projects and to improve the schools’ current science education program through the teacher training initiative.

 

See more about the CSKYWLA ENGAGE scholars here.

Jumpstart

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Jumpstart brings pre-school children and caring adults together in year-long mentoring relationships to build skills vital to children’s success. Children who participate in Jumpstart achieve a 26% gain in school readiness skills.

Here at Georgia Tech, Jumpstart gets students to work weekly with pre-school children to develop their educational skills. Jumpstart Corps Members can earn a work study award and/or receive an AmeriCorps education award.

To learn more about the program visit their website: http://service.gatech.edu/jumpstart/

Origins Program: Teacher Workshops & Research Experiences for Art and Science Teachers

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The Georgia Tech Center for Education Integrating Mathematics, Science, and Computing and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts will create a program that will provide high school educators with the exposure, materials, and skills necessary to prepare our future workforce and to foster student interest in materials science and engineering, while integrating African art design and storytelling. The purpose of the program is to utilize summer research programs for teachers and undergraduate students interested in teaching to form a team and create lesson plans for high school Art and Science classes. Once these lessons are created they can be shared at a workshop for art and science teachers in collaboration with the Woodruff Professional Learning Program for Teachers.  The goals of the Origins Program are to 1) Increase the general public’s awareness of nanotechnology and sustainability, 2) Integrate nanotechnology and African art in the classroom, 3) Increase the public awareness of the evolution of materials found in African art and design.