Kids Are Scientists Too, Storrs, CT

Summer science program taking place at the University of Connecticut Storrs campus.Kids Are Scientists Too Inc. (KAST) is a nonprofit corporation whose goal is to inspire young scholars to be interested in science and learning through fun, interactive science sessions led by nurturing high school and college students. We believe that all kids deserve the opportunity to participate in hands-on extracurricular enrichment led by passionate teachers. KAST was founded in January 2010 by LearnServe fellow Jessica Yang in response to budget cuts on science programs in underfunded schools and the increasing trend of textbook memorization based classroom learning. We are extending the KAST program to northern Virginia, creating KAST Virginia.

The topics that students are interested in while they are young are the ones which they are more likely to pursue later on in life. If young students go through school thinking that science is just reading and memorizing facts and are learning concepts without understanding application, we would be doing them a disservice. Despite the resources of many schools, elementary school students should be able to understand that science is exciting through interactive, educational activities. It is our mission to guide every student to their “Aha!” moment.

Each one hour session includes approximately 30 minutes of teaching and lab skill building, and 30 minutes of an interactive activity. The KAST core team designs these original, creative plans which are implemented by teams of high school students. Biweekly, the team at each high school visits a designated elementary school with plans and supplies to conduct the fun science program. Topics include states of matter, photosynthesis, solar energy, forensics, and much more.