When two local high school students’ senior year was derailed due to COVID, they could have spent the time frustrated and dejected. Instead, Aditi Prakash and Rimi Kaur, friends for years, worried more about kids younger than they. Using their experience in mentoring and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the two launched “Key to Learning.”
Rimi and Aditi created a new way for younger kids to have a more successful virtual learning experience, working in partnership with local schools, libraries and organizations. Now, what they’ve done has become so popular, they don’t think a return to in-person schooling will slow them down!
For Key to Learning, Aditi and Rimi have created lessons modules related to STEM. Within one curriculum, there are five topics to learn. Each topic lesson has a video they created, available on their website, as well as a kit containing material to conduct an at-home experiment related to the topic. Through these kits, Key to Learning has made STEM curriculum hands-on for kids, even as the world moved to a virtual classroom.
As they heard through their community, virtual learning was hard for all – teachers and students. And Rimi and Aditi wondered how they could help increase the amount of actual learning accessible through online learning.
They originally began by trying to create a virtual MESA Bridge Camp, but realized that wasn’t available as an option. So they decided to augment the science curriculum they knew kids were getting (like ecosystems) with science they felt was also important yet not as widely taught (like physics).
Rimi and Aditi were also conscious to create experiments that could be done with fairly common household items in the event that students didn’t have access to the Key to Learning kits.
Aditi and Rimi originally met at a MESA Bridge Camp themselves, and both have a passion for STEM. As they have received continued support through MESA Bridge Camp teachers and advisors, the two friends realized that they wanted to encourage other kids to pursue skills in technology, science, engineering and math.
Their entire motivation is to encourage students to enjoy the richness of STEM like they have.
As Aditi says, “A lot of students decide in their early elementary years whether they are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at math and science. And that kind of dictates the path they will take later in life. I think that’s terribly unfortunate and we need to combat that with encouraging exciting projects that help with their creativity, help to see math and science as something obtainable and enjoyable, rather than something they have to dread.”
Aditi continues, “It’s important because every year the science, STEM field grows and there are more careers and options. Our world is so dependent on technology that having an entire population of kids already deciding that they are bad at science in third grade is terrible.”
Today, Key to Learning has been more successful than they originally imagined. They have delivered 300 kits so far, with 200 more currently in progress.
Currently, these kits have gone to the Boys & Girls Club and the library, and Rimi has been working with schools and teachers directly to get kits and curriculum delivered to their students and classrooms.
They have a group of dedicated volunteers to help them assemble and distribute the kits.
While nothing about their senior year at Albemarle High School has gone as envisioned, the two are full of enthusiasm and hope. Rimi will be attending UVA in the fall and Aditi will be taking a gap year, with the intent to use some of that time to continue to grow Key to Learning.
The pair plan for this to be a proper nonprofit organization with a national reach. They look to Khan Academy as an inspiration.
“STEM is the way the world advances on” Rimi shares. “So learning about it is something that is really important. There are so many jobs within that field, and it will continue to grow. I think a lot more kids should get to experience it and understand the real world applications of STEM.”
Learn More About Key to Learning:
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