Eastern Michigan University has received $42,000 in funding from the AT&T Foundation, going towards television programs and math kits to promote STEM careers.
The program has partnered with Detroit Public T.V. and the Michigan Learning Channel to promote videos for higher education for women in nontraditional careers.
Director of K-12 STEM Outreach at the Gameabove College of Engineering and Technology, Bia Hamed, feels as if there isn’t enough focus on younger students right now when it comes to introducing them to STEM.
“Kids are in such a way that they need to be exposed to STEM for us to fill all the open jobs out there,” Hamed said.
The learning loss due to the closings during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be damaging to K-12 students everywhere. With the remaining $20,000, Eastern Michigan University’s Office of K-12 STEM Outreach partnered with AT&T and Black Girl MATHgic to give out math kits to every fifth grade student in the Detroit Public School Community District.
Hamed made it her priority to help all of the students she can through these new programs.
“There are school districts that are struggling, and I feel that it’s higher-eds job to get in there and help the underserved students,” Hamed said.
These math kits will be created by an organization named Black Girl MATHgic, whose creator is from Detroit, and will include various hands-on activities using math in different ways. This will allow students to take home the boxes, interact with their families, and have fun learning.
Families within the Detroit community should see these boxes being distributed out in their child’s classroom around April 2022.
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