Innovative Partnership Uses Robotics to Combat Summer Slide

United Way’s STEM Learning Ecosystem Launches Camp:ASPIRE to keep kids learning during COVID-19

This is not your normal summer.  Camps and enrichment programs have been curtailed or cancelled outright.  Children are out of school, but parents are still working—at home or elsewhere.

But imagine that students at home could learn to build robots that mimic animals or solve a community problem.  Now they can, thanks to an innovative virtual summer camp program in robotics offered by the Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystem (GBSLE).

The GBSLE is launching Camp:ASPIRE--an acronym for At-home Summer Programs in Robotics and Engineering--designed to immerse local children in hands-on STEM learning activities and creative fun with robots. An initiative of the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County and Bridgeport Prospers, the STEM Ecosystem is offering the program to keep kids safely engaged, and to help combat “summer slide,“ a tendency to lose learning gains made during the school year.

“We’re excited to offer this innovative STEM education program to keep kids learning, problem-solving and growing skills for the future,” commented Gwendolyn Brantley, Lead of the Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystem.

Camp:ASPIRE offers a combination of online and hands-on learning with robotics tool kits.  Daily camp classes are taught over Zoom by trained instructors in two-hour sessions.  Based on learnings from the virtual classes, students then complete two hours of activities on their own, using individual robotic UKITs.  The kits contain hundreds of pieces of lights, motors, wheels, and other gear such as sensors. 

“It’s vital to keep kids learning during the summer, when they can lose from one to three months of academic skills,” added Allison Logan, Executive Director of Bridgeport Prospers, home of the STEM Learning Ecosystem.

Students in low income households are particularly vulnerable to loss, since they have fewer resources for learning outside school.  Overall, math skills are at higher risk of loss than reading skills.  Some  experts warn that summer learning may be even more critical this year, as early school closures could mean a “COVID-19 Slide,” where students could fall nearly a full year behind in math.

“Our goal with the camp is to prevent summer learning loss and maintain academic skills needed for the new school year,” said Brantley.  “Our STEM Learning Ecosystem partners mobilized very quickly to make Camp:ASPIRE available to local students.”

STEM Ecosystem partners offering the virtual robotics camp program include ACCESS Educational Services, Bridgeport Public Schools, Cardinal Sheehan Center, New Vision International Ministries, PT Partners, and Stratford’s South End Community Center.  Camp offerings launch this week, with class options for beginning and intermediate learners throughout the summer. 

Learning will continue in the fall as well.  The Stem Ecosystem secured a grant to provide UBTECH advanced learning kits to students at Central Magnet High School.

“I’m so proud of our STEM Learning Ecosystem and their innovative initiatives to provide quality STEM learning experiences that will truly put kids on the path to a promising future,”  commented Jeff Kimball, CEO of United Way of Coastal Fairfield County. 

Camp:ASPIRE was developed through the partnership of UBTECH, a global leader in robots and artificial intelligence, and the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice, a global initiative dedicated to preparing children to thrive through high quality STEM education.  The program is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.  A portion of the camp proceeds are returned to the local STEM ecosystems for camp scholarships.

To learn more about Camp:ASPIRE,  contact Gwendolyn Brantley at  gbrantley@unitedwaycfc.org. 

To donate to the program, visit www.unitedwaycfc.org.

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About the Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystem (GBSLE)

The Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystem mission is to prepare students to become career-ready leaders by providing access to quality STEM learning environments.  It is a collaboration of 35 innovators:  educators, business and civic representatives, non-profits, and youth-serving organizations.  GBSLE  is one initiative of Bridgeport Prospers, a cradle-to-career collective impact initiative. It is a member of the global STEM Learning Ecosystem Community of Practice (SLECoP), a group of 89 cross-sector collaborations seeking to nurture and scale effective STEM learning opportunities for young people. 

About Bridgeport Prospers
Bridgeport Prospers mission is to work collectively as a community of stakeholders to have a positive, measurable, and sustainable impact on outcomes for all children and families, from cradle to career.  We focus on a set of seven common outcomes, from healthy and ready at three and kindergarten readiness, to high school graduation and career readiness. The initiative is funded by United Way of Coastal Fairfield County.  Find out more at: https://www.unitedwaycfc.org/bridgeportprospers.

About United Way of Coastal Fairfield County

United Way of Coastal Fairfield County’s mission is “Together, we mobilize our communities to improve people’s lives.” Our vision is that all children in coastal Fairfield County are successful in school and prepared for success in life. UWCFC serves the towns of Bridgeport, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport, and Wilton. Find out more at: https://www.unitedwaycfc.org.

CONNECTICUT LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS TURN CRISIS INTO LEARNING LABRATORY, MODEL FOR STATE

The PT Barnum Apartments, a 360-unit low-income public housing complex with over 1,100 residents in Bridgeport, Conn., is feeling the brunt of the Covid crisis. Already facing one of the largest Opportunity Gaps in the country, they’re now in the eye of Connecticut’s coronavirus hot spot.  Just last month, nearly 40% of residents lost their jobs.

Mobilizing for Action

Showing their resilience, they mobilized for action. Residents conducted a survey to assess the community’s  needs, finding that emergency funds to cover rent, utility bills and food ranked highest, and thanks to a partnership between the United Way and Bank of America, relief is being provided.  But it was another emerging need that empowered residents to literally turn the crisis into a learning opportunity, speaking to the innovative partnership with Bank of America.

Meeting an Unfulfilled Need

Initially, at the onset of the crisis, before the transition was made to full-time virtual learning, tutoring was highlighted as a need among residents as students worried about keeping pace.  The United Way and its STEM Ecosystem partners immediately cobbled together trusted allies and recruited college students from the city (former STEM participants), to engage with PT’s children for intensive tutoring. What began as a targeted effort with 5 tutors and 5 families in PT is now scaling to serve 75 children. At present, there are 42 students participating, which represents a growth of 8x over just one month. In addition, the program is expanding beyond its roots in PT, with students from Fairfield Warde now in the pipeline.

How the Tutoring Works

The program managers design the program, recruit and then train the tutors, working in conjunction with curriculum specialists. Tutors are former STEM program participants or STEM students, primarily in college. Many of these students are struggling in their own lives with food and housing, so earning a small stipend helps address a little of their own issues as well. As STEM students, these tutors are already comfortable in a virtual environment and know how to bring AI to the industrial age, as the kids they’re working with lack access to technology.

We have tutors from the University of Bridgeport, Housatonic Community College, Southern CT State University, Sacred Heart, Fairfield University and next week, graduate students will be joining the program from the College of Pharmacy at St. Josephs to focus on math.

Tutors spend 2-4 hours with each child, often connecting by phone. We work with leading STEM curriculum specialists and select special kits, based on the children’s needs, sending them to the families for ongoing work. Our plan is to work with children THROUGH the summer, to prevent a summer slide and keep children at-level as they enter the new school year.

Program Cost

Thanks to the Bank of America, we were able to seed this program and get it off the ground. It simply wouldn’t have happened without their support, and belief in the residents of PT to empower themselves. This innovative effort costs $1,188 cost per student. Over the course of 4 months, that’s just $297 per month, per student. A greater issue, what’s the cost of inaction?

Barriers We’re Facing

• Securing additional funds. We need $150,000 to scale this program to meet the needs of those who already have expressed interest in Fairfield and Bridgeport, never mind the rest of Fairfield County, where we plan to go next.

• Access to the internet continues to be a major challenge for many families. Turns out “free” programs aren’t free (just initially) and dead zones and no connectivity translates directly to a lack of opportunity. That’s why we’re building our program initially around using a phone and sending kits to children.

Empowerment leads to opportunity

PT Barnum’s residents remind us again of the promise and possibility found when we empower people, harness innovation and work together. Thanks to a partnership with the Bank of America, all of this became possible.

Want more information, contact Jeff Kimball, CEO or Gwen Brantley, program manager.