By Peter Walker | National Fundraising Event Manager
Thank you for your support of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada! Because of you, we’re able to help youth like Logan, of the Boys and Girls Club of Brantford, to explore new opportunities in STEM subjects.
Through your financial support, you are making an impact every day in communities across Canada:
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“I like building the kits, especially the challenging ones,” says 13-year-old Logan.
An enthusiastic participant in the Boys and Girls Club’s STEAM Ahead! program, Logan has never missed a workshop and has a roomful of colourful creations to show for it.
STEAM Ahead! is a recently launched national program of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, in partnership with Fidelity Investments. The program encourages youth to explore STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fundamentals and includes an artistic (A) component to encourage creativity and innovation.
The weekly engineering program introduces basic scientific and engineering concepts in a fun, interactive way. The Brantford Club also offers simpler STEAM activities for children as young as 5 and an introduction to video game design for older youth.
Logan highlights some of the simple machines he learned how to assemble through the STEAM program, using levers, pulleys and inclined planes.
“The wooden gator and model airplane were the best,” Logan says, as he adjusts a zip line glider to make it go faster. He demonstrates how changing the position of an elastic band makes a propeller car move differently.
“I feel good because I finished building them all, even the hard ones,” Logan adds.
“I like to see how Logan experiments with the finished creations,” says Brantford After School Program Supervisor Sarah McDonald. “He always tries different ways to operate the mechanism and change the way it works. He also coloured and decorated them in a unique way.”
According to Sarah, the hands-on approach of the Club program promotes creativity and experimentation and helps break down learning barriers by emphasizing fun activities in a group context.
The STEAM Ahead! building kits and computer-based game-making software are helping Logan and many other Club members develop STEM skills and knowledge without realizing they are learning, she notes. “They just think they’re having fun.”
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What do you think? Are you interested in more information about how you can support Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada? Please get in touch with me at pwalker@bgccan.com or 1-844-477-7272 x232
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