Summer Programs Get Students on Track
Every summer, the USU STARS! GEAR UP program offers learning experiences to help students stay focused on their education and learn more about their interests in STEM-related fields. This year’s activities took place at schools, district offices, and college campuses.
Many GEAR UP schools hosted summer programs to help offset learning loss from the previous year. These summer programs offered remedial help in the form of credit retention. The program at Clearfield High School reached even more students over two weeks this year than it did in previous years. As a result, over 80 students participated, supported by four teachers and three GEAR UP aides, and were able to recover over 250 credits.
“GEAR UP allowed us the funds and support to build a lasting credit recovery program that we will be able to use in years to come,” said Jenne Talbot, site coordinator at Clearfield High School. Partnerships such as these show how partner schools identify needs and use the funding to build sustainable programs. This program supported by GEAR UP funding will benefit both the students that take part now and in the future.
As in past years, GEAR UP programming focused on learning new skills and exploring STEM-subject areas. Educational collaboration with GEAR UP partners made these activities happen. Partner-groups created science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) focused activities using labs and materials at Granite School District and the Utah State University Logan campus. Students came together at these events to join their peers from other schools and learn new things.
College Prep Camp
The first-ever College Prep Camp took place on June 14-17 for GEAR UP Grant Two students, class of 2021, students. These newly graduated students were given a glimpse into campus life, learning about challenges they might face during their first year of college. Students received advice, tips, and resources to help them transition to college. They also met their GEAR UP College Advisor, a student-focused point of contact for GEAR UP students. Camps were offered on the USU campus in Logan, Clearfield High School, Cottonwood High School, and Snow College.
GEAR UP Ed Tech Camp
Granite School District offered their popular five-day Educational Technology Camp for high school students with this year’s theme of time travel and problem-solving skills. The camp was held for GEAR UP Grant Four students, class of 2024, on June 14-18. Students started each day with a different team-building activity. Then, they went to work applying STEM solutions to historical or future scenarios. Solutions included programming Edison Robots to deliver goods to quarantined villagers, creating toys of the future, and flying drones through obstacles and for surveillance. Camp is a partnership with the GSD’s educational technology teachers and was held at the Educational Technology Learning Center in West Valley City, UT.
Biology in Life Camp
GEAR UP Grant Three students, class of 2023 and 2024, attended one-day camps held in the new Life Sciences Building on USU’s Logan campus. After an overview on safety, students were given experience working in the laboratory, doing biology experiments using CRISPR and PCR technology related to biology majors and careers. Students also toured and ate on campus. Biology camp was offered in partnership with USU’s College of Science.
Engineering Camp
Students in GEAR UP Grant Three, class of 2023 and 2024, have long benefitted from the partnership GEAR UP has with USU’s College of Engineering. This year students continued this tradition as they participated in fun and educational engineering activities including building paper plate speakers, working with electromechanical kits, and competing with their teams in an engineering quadrathlon.
“I loved working on my problem-solving skills in all the classes,” said one student at Engineering Camp. Another said that the “microcontroller kits were really fun and learning how to code and seeing it in action was fun.” GEAR UP students clearly benefit from visiting college campuses and doing small-group activities while interacting with college student mentors.
Parents also praised camps as a summer highlight. Jessica Henderson, site coordinator at Logan High School, received a thank you from one GEAR UP parent saying that their son loved camp and that it was a big hit. “He had such a great day and talked about it for days afterward.” While camps were limited in length this year, the fun and learning potential gained by the students this summer was not.