This year, NBC Bay Area’s parent company NBCUniversal awarded $2.5 million in local impact grants to nonprofit groups across the nation.
In the Bay Area, one of the grant recipients is the Youth Science Institute in Santa Clara County.
The Youth Science Institute offers programs to 30,000 students a year, giving them a chance to learn about the environment, science and reptiles.
Second graders from Millikin Basics Plus School in Santa Clara took a break from textbooks and computer screens to embrace hands-on science.
“I learned reptiles are cold blooded and mammals are not,” said Anaya Agham, a student.
This lesson goes beyond show and tell. The institute’s curriculum is tied directly to the state’s science standard – a big plus for teacher Holly Nottage.
“Cause they have a connection so when they go back to class, they understand the textbook better they have it in their mind already and they have more discussions about it,” Nottage said.
Dani Rayan was fascinated by this California Newt.
“I learned [newt] are very clever, and they can easily defend themselves,” Rayan said.
For decades, YSI has been offering hands-on environmental science programs and summer camps here at Vasona Lake County Park and other locations in the South Bay.
Now, after receiving a $47,000 NBCUniversal local impact grant, the institute can move forward with even more programs.
“We are going to invest that money to make sure we can provide as much equitable access to programs as possible. We want to partner with as many title one schools as we can so we can bring them to nature centers or bring programming to the schools so they can have access to as much hands-on science programs as possible,” said Dan Gross, the executive director at the Youth Science Institute.
He says for many kids this experience can influence their future.
“We know it leads to kids becoming passionate about science, and they start to think about what careers in science would be like,” Gross said.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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