Although many Boston STEM festivals generally discuss involvement in computers or technology, a weekend kid-friendly workshop reminded the community that STEM can also encompass natural science.
Local youth came together at Orchard Gardens in Roxbury to learn more about plant life at “Springing into STEM” on Saturday, a gathering specially geared toward educating children about horticulture and plant science. Organizers invited kids from third to 12th grade, and the students participated in several scientific activities, ranging from plant crossword puzzles to listening to a guest speaker about plant science.
National Society of Black Engineers Boston and BOSSquad organized the day to educate children on plants and to get them more engaged in science, hopefully leading them to foster a lifelong interest in the subject.
NSBE works as a professional organization that originally started as a collegiate program. NSBE established BOSSquad as a pre-collegiate program to work on getting more minorities involved and interested in STEM.
Aubrielle Kituuma, an event coordinator of BOSSquad, explained that “Plant STEM” is not the first one of these special science meet-ups to be held, but rather one in a series with different themes each month.
“Once a month, we have STEM [events] that promote science and STEM,” Kituuma said. “This month, we’re doing plant-based information.”
The hands-on part of “Plant STEM” allowed for the students to participate in the germination process and plant a seed in a jar.
After the short experiment, a guest speaker, Cassandria Campbell, who is the founder of Fresh Food Generation, came and discussed her farm-to-table business, further educating the children on plant life and how it can be possible to make a living off of just planting alone.
By showing the students that this way of life is possible, Campbell said she tried to set a good example of what exactly plants can do for people. Her work attempts to get children more interested in plant life and STEM, she said to the audience.
Kituuma further clarified that by having workshops such as these, NSBE is working on its goal of graduating around 10,000 black engineers by 2020.
“The goal is to produce more engineers of color that are socially responsible,” Kituuma said. “If you want to get them to graduate with an engineering degree from college you have to start early. You have to sow those seeds of interest and get them thinking and provide exposure so they see people that look like themselves in the field. It would make it a real possibility.”
To further encourage this, NSBE discounts college preparation resources, college applications and even provides scholarship opportunities. All of these efforts work as a pipeline to connect those early childhood interests in science to an actual career someday, Kituuma said.
“I have seen an increased interest in engineering,” said Nathan Kituuma, director of BOSSquad. “I think the interest levels are increasing because students are becoming a lot more curious about the technology they interact with on a daily basis as well as their daily life experiences.”
Other attendees, such as Jose DeLeon, 27, of Lawrence, attended “Plant STEM” simply out of sheer curiosity to learn more about the environment.
Although DeLeon said he didn’t come in with any expectations other than to learn a little bit more about the environment, his interest proved NSBE is doing more than just encouraging more engineers of color to join the STEM field. NSBE brings people together for the sake of science and is truly making a positive impact on the community in Roxbury, he said.
“My wife thought it would be a good idea to spend more time with my brother,” DeLeon said. “We can check out something new and learn about the environment, too.”
