Dr. Susan Rauchwerk, right, leads Cambridge Youth Programs counselors through an activity that illustrates the flow of watersheds as part of a professional development workshop. Lesley faculty, staff, alumni and students worked with the city of Cambridge in this recent program at the Frisoli Youth Center.
Summertime is made for playing outdoors and, when water is involved, so much the better.
But water, essential for life, is also a powerful education tool, as our faculty, staff, alumni and students recently showed a group of about 40 youth workers and program leadership staff from Cambridge Youth Programs during a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) professional development workshop.
The gathering, funded as part of biotech company Biogen’s STAR Initiative (science teacher support, access and resources), was designed to engage city youth workers in a series of STEAM activities that could be used, reimagined and expanded with their middle- and high-school students.
Assistant Professor Sue Cusack, director of the Lesley STEAM Learning Lab, was joined at the workshop by Assistant Director Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, Wonderlab co-founder and Executive Director Susan Rauchwerk, Associate Professor Nicole Weber, and alumni Alexander Goldowsky (B.S. ’87, M.Ed. ‘02, a Learning Lab consultant) and Laura Kathrein (M.Ed ’17), a dancer whose “Mystic Moves” project embodies the transit of the Mystic River watershed.
“Through these experiences, we are building the capacity of CYP staff to engage Cambridge youth in STEAM activities in ways that make learning meaningful and maximize the use of outdoor spaces at community centers across the city of Cambridge,” Cusack says.