PATH
Imagine being introduced to Newton’s Laws by a physicist and a Hip Hop dancer spinning on his head rather than a textbook. We propose pairing STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners to co-facilitate inquiry-based, product assessed experiences for youth in public schools. The combined efforts of teachers, STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners will bring a fresh face to STEM content. These partnerships introduce youth to STEM content through interactive presentations, entrepreneurial innovation and service learning projects that extend their STEM knowledge into the real world.
About You
About You
First Name
Natalie
Last Name
Lewis
About Your Organization
Organization Name
PATH: Preserving, Archiving & Teaching Hiphop
Organization Website
Organization Phone
786-338-3544
Organization Address
Organization Country
United States, FL, Miami-Dade County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, FL
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
PATH
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Imagine being introduced to Newton’s Laws by a physicist and a Hip Hop dancer spinning on his head rather than a textbook. We propose pairing STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners to co-facilitate inquiry-based, product assessed experiences for youth in public schools. The combined efforts of teachers, STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners will bring a fresh face to STEM content. These partnerships introduce youth to STEM content through interactive presentations, entrepreneurial innovation and service learning projects that extend their STEM knowledge into the real world.
What are the primary activities of your project?
1) Curriculum Development & Content Delivery – STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners introduce STEM topics through real world challenges and interactive in-class experiences. For instance, an ear bud or hearing aid designer may collaborate with a sound engineer and a DJ to address youth hearing loss as a result of overuse of ear buds. The anatomy of the ear or properties of sound waves is broadened by demonstrations of wavelength, frequency and amplitude using ProTools, a music production application.
2) Product Innovation & Creation - The youth produce “products” – songs, prototypes, videos, proposals, images, dances, blueprints, podcasts, websites, etc. – that assess content knowledge and application skills. Through this process, youth also learn about STEM entrepreneurship and innovation. Our hope is to stimulate interest in STEM innovation and STEM related ventures at the sole proprietor as well as corporate level.
3) Community Service - The products must serve the common good. Students have produced theme songs for sustainable energy initiatives and videos that encourage improved nutrition among youth. These service projects provide a framework for deeper exploration of STEM topics and their relevance in the students’ daily lives. It also helps forge long term relationships between students and STEM professionals as they make use of the products in their organizations.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
This project delivers STEM content in a personally and culturally relevant way. Hip Hop helps adults connect to youth. Further, using product based assessment as a compliment to traditional assessment models adds value to the learning experience. All components of the project are aimed at transforming youth perception of STEM from dry, dull and difficult to engaging, creative and interactive.
Special efforts will be made to connect with STEM professionals of color who may be able to sustain ongoing mentorships through extended community service or job shadowing at the STEM professional’s organization/ company. This initiative is innovative because it draws on the talent of less traditional STEM practitioners, offering youth a range of ways that STEM is applied across industries and disciplines. This will broaden their understanding of not only what STEM is, but who is succeeding in these fields.
Inner city youth are not taught to explore entrepreneurship as a means of economic sustainability. We aim to revive the entrepreneurial spirit that has enabled scientific and technological innovation to flourish in past centuries. By connecting entrepreneurship to STEM, youth may be more open to STEM fields as a context in which creativity and innovation is welcomed and nourished.
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
We serve urban youth ages 11 – 18 from diverse cultural backgrounds, but moderate to low income. Many of them come from communities that have been traditionally disenfranchised due to limited political, social and financial capital. Although street hustle may be familiar to many of them, transferring the skills learned in the streets to create profitable ventures may be less familiar to the youth.
Because many of the participating STEM professionals and Hip Hop practitioners share cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds with the youth, they may connect organically with the youth. PATH’s STEM partners and vast network of artists are able to translate STEM concepts into a language that is compelling and engaging for youth. PATH has a reputation for engaging youth and maintaining their attention. This is critical in the quest to increase their interest in traditionally daunting, “harder” content.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
In 2010, a sound engineer and DJ lent their skills to a summer program where STEM skills were being taught passively through the arts. The youth were so drawn to the two professionals that they were willing to receive the knowledge being imparted with a positive bias. Learning the properties of sound waves seemed more natural coming from a sound engineer and seeing soundwaves projected via a music production application than reading it from a science textbook. By the end of the session, 80% of the youth were able to recall the properties with limited assistance and nearly 100% were able to assist in production of a final product that assessed their knowledge through application. They produced a rhythm and recorded a song whose content addressed issues related to improving the world around them.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
Approximately 200 words left (1600 characters).
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Approximately 200 words left (1600 characters)
Tell us about your partnerships
Approximately 200 words left (1600 characters)
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
Please select
Explain your selections
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Partnerships and Accountability
Please tell us more about how your partnership was formed and how it functions. What specific role does each partner play? What unique resources does each partner bring to the initiative?
How are you building in accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes? Please provide a summary and examples.
Needs
Investment, Marketing/Media, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Mentorship.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add needs that may not be listed.
Offers
Human Resources/Talent, Marketing/Media, Research/Information, Collaboration/Networking, Innovation/Ideas.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add offers that may not be listed.
 | 94 weeks ago Natalie Lewis updated this Competition Entry. |
| 95 weeks ago Natalie Lewis updated this Competition Entry. |
| 95 weeks ago Natalie Lewis submitted this idea. |
