BYC Launches STEM, Art RoomsKids at the Baker Youth Club won’t be able to avoid learning while having fun in two new rooms, even if they try.
The organization launched its BYC STEM Activity Center and its Art Studio at BYC this week,with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday. In October, BYC opened its first of the three new areas, the ExerGame Room. An open house for all three rooms is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday.
In the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) room, there’s a 50-foot wall of Legos, where building and engineering principles are discovered; a 50-foot ball wall that teaches principles of physics; and a gear wall that teaches mechanical relationships and principles.
In the middle of the room are “Discovery Tubs” of STEM activities on tables, like how to make volcanos out of baking soda.
The STEM Center has an aquaponics station where members will learn how to create an ecosystem friendly to plants and aquatic animals.
Christine Bonifield, project manager at Network Partners and part of the BYC STEM leadership team, said the goal was to have very interactive walls and for the activities to be very kid-directed. The long walls provide plenty of room for multiple BYC members to be as creative as they can. Eventually, there will be “challenge cards” at the tables, but for now the kids are so excited for all the new stations they don’t need to be challenged, she said.
There are no chairs for the Discovery Tubs so the children are active and moving, Bonifield said. The tubs will be on a rotation, and kids can learn and play at their own pace. The goal is to have 300 to 500 tubs, BYC board member Dr. Rachael Hoffert said.
Bonifield said lots of Legos were donated, but they’re looking for more donations.
As for the gear and ball walls, Bonifield said they are museum quality so they should last a long time. The metal for the wall was donated.
“This has been amazing to watch the kids,” she said, noting how engaged the kids have become with the activities.
Hoffert said Grace College students are helping create the challenge cards for the tubs. The Grace students were given lessons in STEM and tasked with coming up with the cards. Monday afternoon, the Grace students were going to work with the BYC members on creating their own volcanos.
She explained that about a year ago the BYC board of directors looked at what could be done to engage students at the club. BYC started looking at other youth clubs in northern Indiana about a year ago to generate ideas for program options in Warsaw. Once they decided which direction to go, BYC Director Tracy Furnivall wrote the grant applications.
Hoffert said BYC wants to provide a safe, supporting and engaging atmosphere for its members.
“A grant from the Dekko Foundation kickstarted the whole thing. The plan was to build as much as we could into the grant so it would be sustainable for years. We were really creative with the funding to get as much bang for the buck,” Bonifield said.
She said working on the STEM Activity Center has been a huge passion for her. She started working with Furnivall on it in August.
Support from local community partners like Dekko Foundation, Network Partners, Warsaw Metal, Kosciusko REMC, Warsaw Community Schools and Grace College School of Education made the STEM Activity Center a reality, according to a news release.
“We are looking for additional corporate partners. This community has many businesses utilizing STEM principles. It just makes sense for us to develop relationships as we motivate our kids to become excited about STEM fields of study. Our goal is to develop activities related to area businesses that will benefit the local job force and our club members in their future career paths,” Furnivall says in the release.
The Art Studio at BYC is an engaging space for club members to unleash their creative streak, according to the release.
“Opening an art studio at BYC has been one of our dreams. We want to engage our members by providing opportunities to experiment with different art techniques while developing their fine motor skills,” Hoffert says in the release.
The art studio will expose BYC members to canvas painting, dump pour painting, sketching, 3D crafts, color usage and a variety of other projects. The concepts will be developed by Calyn Howell, an art major at Grace College, the release states. Howell has developed age-appropriate projects that will bring out the creative side of the young BYC members. She will offer holiday take-home crafts that will allow BYC kids to create personal gifts to give to loved ones.
Furnivall said, “I want to give a huge thank-you to the community for its support of the Baker Youth Club for 93 years and a huge shout-out to Rachael Hoffert and her family and Christine Bonifield and her family. They were very instrumental in the structure of all three new areas. And I want to thank the Dekko Foundation and the K21 Health Foundation for their support.”
Hoffert said the BYC is “blessed to have a director with a vision for BYC.”
BYC is a local youth development agency that strives to provide quality supervision for the young people in the community. It emphasizes education, health, physical fitness and social skills while teaching young people life skills.
