Along with the Arts and Technology Camp, Jen led two other STEM-focused middle school summer camps: a Sustainability camp and a Circuits and Coding camp, all as part of our work for ULC’s Building Equity: Amplify Summer Learning initiative. I applied for the Cedar Rapids Public Library to join the 2022 cohort because it aligns perfectly with everything we believe in and our library’s strategic goals of advancing literacy, access and inclusion.

We know literacy goes beyond the written word and includes computer and technology literacy. Much of our work has focused on that over the last few years, with the addition of our Mobile Technology Lab. A techmobile rather than a traditional bookmobile, it lets us take STEM-focused activities into the community.

In a 75-square mile city with just two library branches, we know we have to work hard to meet the patrons who need our services most where they are instead of always asking them to come to us. So we did resource mapping, using data from the Cedar Rapids Community School District that included free and reduced lunch numbers and home internet desert maps – data they collected during the pandemic to determine where students needed help accessing remote learning. We also looked at where other free summer STEM activities were happening so we would not duplicate efforts of other nonprofits.

The resource mapping let us pinpoint the neighborhoods we targeted with our summer camps. We then worked with three middle schools that serve those neighborhoods to reach out to parents and register students. Our programming staff planned and ran the camps, led by Jen with assistance from summer Americorps Vista volunteers and seasonal staff.

At the Circuits and Coding camp, the students got to work with coding teaching tools like Makey Makeys and Ozobots and used software to write, code and play their own games. They also learned the logic of coding language with a more low-tech activity – writing out instructions for making a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They then read the instructions to a “robot” staff member, who acted them out. They learned there are a lot of steps it is easy to forget the to tell the robot to do!

At the Sustainability Camp, students visited a greenhouse and pollinator prairie at a city park to learned about native plants, insects, and animals. They did projects like building solar ovens to make their own s’mores and creating art sculptures made from trash they collected during a park cleanup.

Those sculptures were then displayed at the Downtown Library throughout the month, something the students were proud of. In the end, the STEM skills were important, but one of our favorite outcomes was seeing the relationships the students built with each other.

“What I really enjoyed seeing was how good they were to one another and how they came alongside each other to get things done,” Jen said. “They really developed relationships over a week-long camp that I think meant something to them.”