STEM Learning One Shovel at a Time

By Nancy Yeang

Kellogg Polytechnic Elementary students pick fresh snap peas from their garden, learning that the green pods have edible peas and the seeds in the yellow dry pods can be placed in the soil to grow new plants. With the help of Cal Poly Pomona undergraduate students, the children are learning STEM concepts.

The fellows, who are being introduced to education as a potential career through the Ernest Prete Jr. Fellowship program, collaborate with teachers at two Pomona schools to create and deliver lessons for young learners that use the garden as a
hands-on laboratory. Healthy eating habits, higher education opportunities and college life are a few of the co-curricular lessons.

This year, 30 Prete Fellows in STEM majors are paired up with classroom teachers at Kellogg Polytechnic and Armstrong elementary schools. Two of the fellows are mentors who completed the program last year.

This partnership was launched through a $118,000 grant from the Ernest Prete Jr. Foundation. Fellows receive an annual stipend of $5,250, attend workshops and dedicate 10 hours a week to the program, with at least six of those hours working in the schools.

(Photo caption: Martin Rios, a botany student and a Prete Fellow, shows a group of Armstrong Elementary students the loveliness of ladybugs that will be released into the garden.)