Hands-on Technology Experience for Low-Income Kids

During the 20123-2014 school year, Citizen Schools and Google have continued a valuable partnership that gives thousands of students the opportunity to realize and achieve their dreams. Citizen Schools implements expanded learning time (ELT) programs in 7 states around the country. ELT is a powerful strategy to raise student achievement and transform struggling schools. An important model of the Citizen Schools ELT model is our apprenticeships, engaging 10-week courses led by community volunteers from companies and the community called Citizen Teachers (CTs). Throughout the past 8 years, Google employees have served as CTs for Citizen Schools’ programs in Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and California, giving students opportunities to explore rich and diverse content such as robotics, video game design, and programming. Citizen Schools deeply values its partnership with Google because of the outstanding outcomes our students and schools have had as a result of the partnership, as well as the impact the volunteer experience has on Google employees..

For the Fall 2013 semester, 79 Google Citizen Teachers led 33 apprenticeships in Citizen Schools programs. Continuing an effort to align apprenticeships to the needs of our schools and students, 58% of these apprenticeships were in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). For example, one Google-led apprenticeship is called “App Inventor”, where students invent their own Android applications. This Fall, with help from Google Citizen Teachers in Cambridge, students worked in three groups.  One group made a game called "Cheese Chase," in which Tom chases Jerry all over the board while Jerry tries to gain points by eating cheese pieces scattered on the game board.  Another group made an app called "King of the Jungle," in which the player attempts to climb to the top of a rock wall simultaneously getting coins placed on the game board and avoiding falling rocks. Not only did students have a blast during their apprenticeships, they learned valuable skills that will help them to succeed in college and careers.   

The semester’s work culminated in Citizen Schools WOW! Events, happening throughout the month of December in all four Google/Citizen Schools regions. WOW!s are public events in which Citizen Schools students showcase the skills they learned during their apprenticeships. Families, teachers, community members, elected officials, and special guests are encouraged to attend WOW!s and the results are inspiring and joyful events for our students and volunteers. Google highlights from this winter’s WOW!s include:

• In Cambridge, all seven apprenticeships led by Google Citizen Teachers were represented at the WOW!. Google employees also acted as Celebrity Judges, rating the presentations to find areas of strength and aspects worthy of celebration. Students from the Lego Robotics apprenticeship went into the crowd of attendees to draw people to their booth. Once there, students demonstrated how their robots changed paths in response to colors and objects. One student had even built a robot with a sling-shot type arm that catapulted marble-size balls into the air. Meanwhile, students in Secret Magic, Codes and Games built suspense during the formal presentation portion of the night be repeatedly beating the crowd at a series of games based on logic, but refusing to share the secrets of their successes unless people stopped by their booth afterwards  
• Employees of Google New York participated in two WOW!s this winter, one at the Isaac Newton Middle School in Harlem, the other at the Bronx Writing Academy. At Isaac Newton’s WOW!, one of the apprenticeships on display was Shark Tank. This apprenticeship provides students with the opportunity to create a business in teams and present or ‘pitch’ their ideas to professionals at the Google campus. Students learned the parts of a business plan, utilized business vocabulary and designed a complete business plan for a hypothetical online business. Additionally, they worked in teams to create a pitch for this online business and used oral communication skills to make a presentation.  For this particular apprenticeship, students created a lemonade drink and had to sell their idea to audience members as the best drink to "invest" in. One of the CTs from this apprenticeship was floored by students' showmanship and public speaking skills. He told Carol Rosenberg (also a CT on this Shark Tank team) that it was, "incredible to see students exhibiting such confidence and ownership over their ideas!"

Citizen Schools is excited to continue our impactful partnership with Google and its employees. We are looking forward to another promising semester this spring, with the hopes of engaging more Googlers across the country in the volunteer experience. The expertise and enthusiasm of Google Citizen Teachers continues to inspire children in our programs to explore new worlds and prepare meaningfully for their future.  

Links:

• A Google Citizen Teacher Combines Technology and Photography
• A Page Detailing Google's Partnership with Citizen Schools