By Cheryl Stewart | SoSA PR Chair
Now that the adrenaline has worn off & we’ve had some time to recover from hosting almost 200 students at our S.T.E.P.S. workshop last November, we’ve been going through our feedback forms. Every S.T.E.P.S. participant was asked to complete a short questionnaire. Sure, they look happy to be in the lab, but are we making any kind of difference?
We are happy to report that almost all our primary students (92%) have been thinking about attending university when they grow up and 73% had been thinking about maybe becoming a scientist. After seeing first-hand the microscopic critters wiggling in pond water, doing some chemistry with household items & using physics to separate salt from pepper, 98% of the students wanted to go to college and 90% wanted to do science. Wow!
Our high school students had similarly been thinking about going to university (94%) which we all agree is a good thing. We spent several hours with them extracting DNA from bananas, looking at DNA under microscopes and using forensics to solve a crime. After all of that, 97% of the students told us they now wanted to attend college and the percentage of high schoolers who wanted to pursue science climbed from 44% all the way to 64%.
We are excited to be able to inspire #GenerationNext & full of hope for where their future discoveries will take us. This is a journey we take together, with the donations you give us & the labour of our volunteers. We are very grateful to be able to partner with you to effect change in the youth of Jamaica. Thank you so much!
Today, DNA extraction; tomorrow an innovative cure?
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