I have been a Board member of the San Diego Science Alliance for 5 years. I was recruited by it's founder, Patricia Winter, when we met at a BE WiSE overnight at the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation research. I also sit on the Board of the Zoo and am particularly interested in the education programs the Zoo conducts and supports. I was so impressed with the BE WiSE program and proud of the Zoo scientists that were sharing their knowledge with 40 enthusiastic middle school girls, I couldn't decline the offer to represent the SDZoo on the SDSA Board. Since then I have attended every overnight held at the Zoo's Resaerch Center as well as making a concerted effort to attend as many of the other numerous and varied SDSA programs as I can. This helps me get a true understanding of how we serve the community and how we can improve upon those services and expand our reach to more students. My focus the last 3 years has been on the High Tech Fair which I chaired in 2009 and will continue to work on this year. This event provides middle and high school students with the opportunity to see how the study of the STEM subjects can lead to exciting careers. Students get the chance to observe and interact with professionals from 50 local businesses and scientific institutions. It is so rewarding to see the excitement in the faces of our future scientists and engineers as they learn about the endless opportunities to make a contribution to the world through science. My latest experience attending a SDSA program was very recently when I sat in on several classes at an Escondido middle school. One of our STEM Professionals with class from SPA WARS, taught the kids about digital speech technology using a voice recognition computer program. The kids were engaged and attentive throughout the whole class and were actually disappointed when it ended. Again, I was proud to see what a meaningful contribution the SDSA is making through this style of industry and school collaboration.
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- EIN 33-0806707
- info@sdsa.org
- 619-400-9777
- 6161 El Cajon Blvd Ste 409 San Diego CA 92115 USA
- www.sdsa.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Children & Youth, Education, Technology, Youth Development
Mission: The San Diego Science Alliance is a non-profit consortium of leaders from business, K-12 education, higher education and scientific institutions in San Diego County, and is committed to enhancing science literacy in K-12 education. The Science Alliance fulfills its mission by: Networking among organizations in the consortium Connecting needed resources with K-12 educators Initiating, conducting, and supporting K-12 science education programs for San Diego County students and teachers
Geographic areas served: San Diego County
Programs: Be wise (2014)be wise engages girls in science and engineering from middle through high schools with professional women. During fy2014 school year, be wise hosted 3 overnights, 25 saturday workshops and 2 summer week long academies to reach 120 new girls and 550 active alumnae, representing 70 schools in san diego county. These activities were organized by 31 members of a steering committee and involved 26 scientist volunteers who contributed a total of approximately 2500 hours. High tech fair (2014)high tech fair presents a two-day exposition for middle and high-school students, teachers and families featuring stem innovators across san diego county. In 2014, we hosted 66 stem exhibiting companies, non-profits and educational institutions staffed by 250 innovators. Over 4200 people attended the combine student/parent night and full school day fair. Exhibitors were organized into strands featuring aerospace and engineering, biotech, energy and cleantech, conservation and environment, healthtech, infotech, and robotics. Exploring stem careers: roboticsexploring stem careers initiative (esci) is a national science foundation funded collaborative partnership led by the san diego science alliance, a non-profit organization, and san diego state university research foundation. The collaborative includes 6th -12th grade school districts and school sites, stem industries, and institutes of higher education. Over the past three years esci has supported close to 100 teachers and nearly 1400 students from over 50 schools in 11 san diego county districts. Stem challenge activities supported by esci are:botball a team-oriented robotics competition where students pit their robots head-to-head in a fast paced, non-destructive regional tournament. Http://www. Botball. Org/seaperch students construct and wire remotely controlled underwater vehicles and use them in research events to learn about and understand environmental issues as novice scientists. Http://www. Seaperch. Org/indexkid wind students are immersed in the science and construction of wind turbines and then explore how to maximize output through the process of design and redesign. Http://learn. Kidwind. Org/health science initiative (2014)the health sciences initiative (hsi) is a collaborative effort between sdsa, the health-care industry and education organizations to encourage students to study health science in high school. Hsi serves to support and expand 15 health career academy programs by connecting students to 'real world' health career opportunities through programs and partnerships with local service providers and policy makers. San diego stem collaboratorysdsa serves as a regional partner of the california stem learning network through the san diego stem collaboratory. This collaborative partnership invites stakeholders to come together to find ways to fuel our innovation economy with stem talent developed in our local k-16 pipeline. The san diego stem collaboratory has launched phase one development of a quality stem criteria for schools and programs and hosted the inaugural san diego stem summit attended by over 150 participants, 42 academic, industry, and nonprofit organizations and 19 school districts. A criteria for quality stem/steam in san diego has been published under this umbrella.
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