Fund an After-School Science Club in Los Angeles

After-School Science Club

City Year Los Angeles is extremely grateful for your generous donation to provide a month of after-school science enrichment to 40 students at Stevenson Middle School. Thanks to your generosity, City Year corps members were able to provide students a fun and enriching science experience once a week.

This year, a team of 15 corps members served at Stevenson Middle School providing extra attention and support to the students who need it most. In addition to the individualized academic support they provided students in the classroom, corps members offered after-school homework help and enrichment programs to keep students in school and on track to graduate.

Once a week, students got the opportunity to participate in the science club, Myth Busters, where they answered challenges by conducting investigations and experiments. Activities included generating electricity, making liquids glow, and planting. As students engaged in the process of discovery, they become more motivated to learn and more confident in their ability to answer questions. We are happy to report that 85% of the teachers agreed that corps members helped to improve students’ motivation to learn and improve overall student focus and order in the classroom.

Here is an excerpt from Corps Member Zach Metzinger:

“During one of our club sessions, we asked the students if it was possible to generate electricity from pennies. We provided them a blue print, a battery, pennies, tape, sandpaper, and a LED light. At first, we weren’t sure how well the students would respond to the activity but to our delight, they were really into it. One student in particular was Jose, an 8^th grade student, who not only had behavior issues but was also a bad influence on his friends. Jose got excited about sanding the pennies and even challenged himself to generate the brightest light among the group. Once he figured out how to generate electricity, he decided to take two LED lights and find a way to generate enough electricity to light them up at the same time. After a few tries, Jose finally figured it out and, as a result, had the brightest light. It was the first time ever I saw Jose focused.”