BELLEVUE — Bellevue High School sophomore Jonathan Feng dashed over to an activities room table at the city’s downtown Boys & Girls Clubs, where a group of elementary school kids stood leaning over a glass Pyrex dish full of water. One of the kids held a flat green Lego tile in his hand.
With game-show host enthusiasm, Feng asked the students, “Float or sink? Final answer. Lock it in!”
“Float,” they — Team Wolves — shouted with competitive confidence before Feng moved to the next table where he asked another group of students to confirm their hypothesis.
Back at the front of the room, Feng commanded his rapt audience, “OK. On three, let’s test it: One, two, three!”
The DIY-science lab erupted with “yeahs,” fist pumps and high-fives as the Legos bobbed in the water.
Who knew science could be so … rowdy?
Well, Samhita Korukonda and Pooja Rayanki knew. They are the co-founders of STEM Academy, a student-led nonprofit dedicated to providing free, online and in-person classes and activities teaching the principles of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
Korukonda, a junior at Bellevue High, and Rayanki, a student at Homestead High School in California, were friends through childhood in Chicago and have remained close despite moving to different states. They’ve established school-based club chapters of their program at Bellevue and at Cupertino High School in California to do local outreach. STEM Academy, like many student innovations, was born during the pandemic, when the two students had more flexible schedules and spent time learning and working from home.
This week’s after-school workshop was one of the first STEM Academy in-person sessions since the organization was founded.
As young South Asian women, Korukonda and Rayanki say they are keenly aware of gender and diversity gaps in STEM fields and want students to have role models and positive experiences with STEM learning so that they are encouraged to pursue studies and careers in these fields.
“We have younger sisters and we didn’t want them to experience the challenges we’ve had,” Korukonda said.
Over the past year, STEM Academy’s mission and outreach has grown to reach more than 1,100 students at more than 35 elementary schools across the United States through online classes. Korukonda and Rayanki hope to have more programs in-person where there is local interest. The STEM Academy volunteer teaching team includes more than a dozen high school students, most of them female, pursuing STEM studies.
Registration for a five-week rotation of free classes this spring starts the week of April 11. Classes are designed for students in grades one to 10. Recent classes have included subjects like cell biology, pre-algebra, and introductions to coding with JAVA and Python. Astronomy will be added to April’s lineup.
“I personally joined the club because I think it’s important to give back to your community,” said Tirsitemariyam Gessesse, a Bellevue junior who helped teach the after-school activity with Korukonda, Feng and classmate Joy Qiu.
As students get older, “we see a lot of things we wish we had when we were in high school, and see that there are a lot of different things we could teach young kids,” Gessesse said.
Bellevue junior Risha Ashwin said that for younger kids who want to learn a subject that may not be taught in school, STEM Academy is a good place to start.
“I feel like our classes promote that opportunity and help more people get involved in that STEM-related field,” she said.
The STEM Academy youth are currently partnering with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Washington state to offer site-based sessions. They aspire to expand their model internationally to encourage other like-minded high school students to teach STEM classes and activities in their communities.
Jillian Lowe, community partnerships and grants coordinator for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bellevue, said she’s impressed by how organized the STEM Academy students are, and is glad to host them and their activities at area clubs.
“After two years of learning on screens, anything engaging and in-person is great for the kids,” said Lowe. “If it’s informational and fun like these guys have planned, it’s even better.”
Korukonda said the student teachers have previously led simple physics activities like the “sink or float” activity online. They also do an experiment making “lava lamps,” discussing the density of vegetable oil versus water mixed and observed in repurposed clear plastic water bottles. A dash of food coloring and a pinch of glitter are added for fun. The students send families a list of materials ahead of time and try to incorporate common household items so that there is little to no cost to participate.
Bellevue junior Morgan Weber, who teaches online biology courses for STEM Academy, says she tries to plan classes that are engaging on screen. She incorporates interactive online quizzes, group chats and topics based on individual students’ interests. Once, she had a fourth grade girl bring up an article about growing organs while they were learning about the cardiovascular system. So she had a discussion with her students about how scientists are always experimenting and holding trials to make new discoveries.
“I’m so proud of them,” Weber said of her students thinking beyond their lessons.
She and other high school students said they’ve noticed that, as they’ve gotten older, there are fewer young women taking advanced STEM classes and electives.
Bellevue junior Cindy Ni said she’s one of only a few women in her Advanced Placement Physics C class. But, she notices that there’s more of a gender balance in the STEM Academy physics and coding courses she teaches. She thinks the high school classes are more high stakes because they are graded. That may deter participation, but it doesn’t mean students aren’t interested in advanced STEM subjects.
“I think by encouraging them at a young age we’re encouraging them to not stop and to continue taking these classes [as they get older],” said Weber.
Bellevue junior Sonali Dash agreed. “I have a younger sister, she’s in fifth grade, and I think that as she watched me get interested in STEM subjects she started getting really interested in them, too,” she said. Now, she and her sister watch science cartoons together on YouTube and talk about coding.
By getting younger siblings and other students interested in learning about STEM subjects, the STEM Academy members hope that their protégés will help keep the program going for future generations.
Bellevue High School’s Dean of Students Arianna Giaroli, who serves as the STEM Academy Club chapter adviser, said the fact that the organization is student-conceived, student-driven, and demonstrates “levels of compassion and deep knowledge of content” is “remarkable.” She also lauds the fact that outreach extends beyond their local communities.
Giaroli said the school’s goal is for its students to expand their social and emotional learning skills, cultural competence and “change-maker attitudes.”
“I really see these young people in the STEM club embodying that,” she said.
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