The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Get with the Program grows to teach children
An organization seeking to inspire children to pursue STEM has seen 200 percent growth in the past year.
An Oberlin organization seeking to inspire children to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, has seen a 200 percent growth in the past year.
Get with the Program, the brainchild of recently-elected Oberlin School Board member Jason Williams, celebrated its second year of operation this past summer and is growing in the number of school age children it reaches.
Williams said the program has reached nearly 400 children, almost 200 percent more than it had by the end of December 2016.
It reaches the youngsters by holding various programs based different sections of the science, technology, engineering and math (commonly called STEM) subjects.
Williams and the organization took over the main lounge of Wilder Hall on the Oberlin College campus Nov. 22, to teach 60
children about physics using their signature twopronged approach of specifically
designed content and hands-on project-based programs.
The students learned about physics from Oberlin College associate professor Jason Stalnaker and some volunteers.
They were split into four groups and given demonstrations meant to illustrate different phenomena explained by physics.
“They’re doing some stuff that’s touching on angular momentum and force and motion,” Williams said.
The program was capped off by the participants assembling their own LED fidget spinners.
“We want to incorporate an art component,” Williams said. “By doing that, we’re better equipped to address various learning capacities, because you have kids, and people in general, who learn differently.
“So, we attack the same problem, but hit it from different vantage points.”
Despite the increase in children reached through Get With the Program, Williams said there is still a dire need to prepare a diverse group of students for careers in STEM industries.
“Traditionally in STEM fields, there are only 24 percent females and 24 percent people of color (working),” he said. “Our programs are nearly half.
“About 46 percent of our participants have been female at some point in time, and around 44-45 percent have been students of color.”
Because of his new position on the Oberlin School Board, Williams said his organization will not hold programs within the district. He said he is trying to integrate some of the things he’s developed with Get with the Program into the schools’ operations.
“I’m going to act as more of an adviser with STEM programs in Oberlin City Schools,” he said. “One of the things I definitely want to do is broaden and expand the STEM programs in the schools.
“And I’m hopeful to eventually get computer science brought into the districts, and maybe even be considered a language under the International Baccalaureate program.”