SPARK! Igniting Interest and Achievement in STEM through Engineering Design

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"SPARK!" involves 100 underrepresented Philadelphia grade 4-8 students in Saturday and summer OST activities based in problem solving and engineering design in order to increase their interest in the STEM disciplines and motivate them to pursue STEM courses in high school. The design challenges are planned to relate to the science and mathematics curriculum and have the following themes: zoo habitats, biotechnology and robotics. The activities take place at Philadelphia Zoo, the iPRAXIS Center, and Penn Engineering laboratories. All teachers involved with the program (program staff, networked schools' teachers, and Penn education and STEM students) are involved in ongoing professional development related to the engineering and design activities and cultural awareness and are encouraged to take advantage of the partnership's formal programs such as the zoo's teacher institute and the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia offered by Penn faculty.