“You need to finish your project first. Then you can eat them.”
Volunteer LeShae Miller performs oversight over the bags of fruit chews for the Saginaw S.T.E.M. Saturdays experiment. Children attach the soft candies to both ends of skewer sticks, apply masking tape down the middle to connect them in a row, and then tap one to create a ripple effect.
Official Objective: Students will observe frequency, amplitude and wave speed as they observe wave motion through a medium.
That’s what the lesson plan says. And of course, these K-2 kids also are “observing” the bright orange, yellow, red and green goodies at their work stations in the Willie Thompson Middle School gymnasium.
When the demonstration is finished, however, they do not rush to gobble the gummies, except for maybe a leftover or two. Their projects are looking too good to take apart.
LeShae Miller, age 28, exerts 100 percent effort Mondays through Fridays, helping her Jessie Rouse Elementary students catch up when they have started to fall behind. Her professional title is academic interventionist, and she also gives freely of her time on Saturday mornings.
Under the simple title of Saginaw S.T.E.M., she is among dozens of educators and everyday parents who assist the founding leader, Dante’ Davis, and his team in a series of hands-on lessons in science, technology, engineering and math.
Davis has been a friend of LeShae’s family going back to when her schooling began at the former Martha Longstreet Elementary, and so he didn’t need any sort of big recruiting pitch to persuade her to sign on for S.T.E.M.
LeShae’s resume includes her teaching degree from Western Michigan University, and she had considered becoming a nurse or a pediatrician, which both require STEM aspects. She recalls “loving math” as a girl but feeling a “love-hate” toward science. She was ready for the rigors, “but I struggled with the terminology.”
The Davis strategy is ideal, she explains, because the K-12 lessons are not bogged down with the intimidation of poly-syllabic labels. They are fun and are adjusted to all ages, starting with the early elementary young ones in her group. Across the room, teens are at their own work stations, creating the same wave machines but at higher grade levels of learning content.
At LeShae’s table, even a preschooler is getting into it, standing in a chair to keep eye level. Her son Shiloh is approaching his third birthday, and Saturday mornings are his turn to join Mom in the classroom.
Davis is a 1993 Saginaw High School graduate who flies monthly from his family’s Los Angeles residence to oversee his hometown creation. His intro states:
“Saginaw S.T.E.M. was founded in 2019 by Dante’ D. Davis who created this program to introduce inner-city youth to careers in STEM. I feel this is vital to address the massive disparity in STEM exposure, resources, and opportunities, particularly among underrepresented minorities, especially minority women. We will offer youth exposure, awareness, education, and access to employment and career opportunities in these disciplines.
“I have worked for many companies including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Space X, and most recently Tesla Motors. But I started out as a kid in the community, with a village of support and encouragement. I participated in after-school programs, youth camps, summer youth programs, and advancement-for-youth opportunities at colleges and universities.
“What I want to do now is to see other kids have some of the opportunities I’ve had, and, especially in underserved communities, to bring them into the possibilities in the world of STEM, a world of opportunity.”
But on a recent snowy Saturday morning, Davis is not standing behind a rostrum to read all this to a Thompson Middle gymnasium gathering of 150 children, parents and elders.
Instead, clad in sweats and sneakers, and a S.T.E.M. ball cap, he strides from end to end like he might be their athletic coach or their phys ed teacher with a pep talk, speaking of gears and go-karts and bicycles in a gymnasium built for basketball and volleyball.
One thing Dante’ does not do is dwell on disparity, such as ethnic minorities comprising 27 percent of the national population but barely 10 percent of the STEM workforce. More distressing for children today, Blacks and Latinos are four times less likely to be considered “gifted and talented” in STEM at the elementary level.
Davis will cite these stats while lobbying adults for volunteer support and/or funds, but it’s not his message to the children. The main aim is for all participants to see themselves as equal.
He introduces the volunteers and aims to appeal to all ages, but he finds time to address parents and older pupils.
“This can change an entire family’s legacy and earning potential,” he tells them.
Then Davis exhorts: “Alright, are you ready to get started?”
Students rush to their age-designated tables. Some parents choose to stay and observe, while others wait and socialize. In either case, they are doing something that experts insist that more elders need to do, and that’s getting directly involved, instead of leaving everything to teachers and principals and support staff.
The first project, prior to the gummy bear wave machine, is to put together a tonoscope, a makeshift sort of conga. Instead of simply giving every child a drum, the youngsters are asked to make their own, stretching balloons over coffee-cup-sized cylinders and bonding them to the lids with rubber bands. Then they sprinkle restaurant-type salt packets on top and blow various tones into attached pipes. Salt grains “dance” on the surface, depending on whether the sound notes are high or low.
Eighteen different projects are contained in the S.T.E.M. toolbox. They offer variety while offering just enough repetition that a third-grader might encounter the same tonoscope or wave machine several years later, reinforcing the lessons, explains Alexis Thomas, a former city school board member who is among the top organizers when Davis is back home in L.A.
The project kits and instructions were developed by Dr. Calvin Mackie, an engineering professor at Tulane University, labeled STEM NOLA in tribute to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Dante’ Davis definitely doesn’t try to do it by himself. In addition to Dr. Mackie, along with his legions of local volunteers, he has recruited more than a dozen sponsors, starting with the Saginaw School District and the countywide SISD.
One example: Coaches Julian Taylor and Annette Babers from Saginaw High brought their players along to help oversee the proceedings.
In the Thompson Middle gym, some of the elders recognize Kermit Diggs when she visits to offer support. She emphasized math and science during her 36-year teaching career at Morley Elementary School, following the lead of the principal, Charles McNair, long before STEM was known as STEM.
Science fairs at the time were dominated by “gifted and talented” pupils from Handley Elementary. Morley students were leaders among the handful from “regular” schools who would win their share of ribbons.
Diggs views Saginaw S.T.E.M. as a part of a pathway to create more balance in difficult subject areas. She recalls last summer’s African Cultural Festival, when Davis and his team set up shop at the Morley School Park site along Lapeer Street. Children and parents began to gather well before the start time.
“I looked to the heavens,” she noted, “and I said, ‘Mister McNair, do you see this?'”
For more information, in Saginaw S.T.E.M., visit the program’s website at saginawstem.org.
