We are super excited about a recent $5,000 donation from the Society for Science and the Public to help in our translation of our Community Code Jam coding activities to Spanish. We operate in a state where nearly one in three individuals speaks Spanish at home and one in ten reports they don't speak English "well."

As a family engagement event, we have parents who speak only Spanish or who feel more comfortable reading Spanish over English when acquiring new material. The importance of this connection to parents at our Jams is proven out in STEM research. Studies show parents have a profound impact on children’s learning, development, interests and aspirations and educational and career outcomes, especially in areas where parents feel some sense of competence in the subject matter. This is why we require parents to stay with their children at our Jams. But, we leave them out of the equation if we don’t have materials that are accessible to them in a language that makes it comfortable for them to learn. Currently, there are exceedingly few K-12 coding activities translated into Spanish.

We are so thankful for this STEM Action grant that will make it possible to eradicate barriers and reduce the digital divide for families whose first language is not English.

You might know the Society for Science from the International Science and Engineering Fair and the Broadcom MASTERS, among other important research and public engagement efforts.

Read all about their recent grant round in support of many exciting projects around the country here.