Youth & Family Outreach

The Saturday Academy is a K-12 youth program at Kansas City Kansas Community College. We began supporting this project in 2022 during its 22nd year of programing, with funding from the Kansas NSF EPSCoR ARISE project. The academy engages roughly 200 middle school and high school students each year. Efforts are underway to create new content focused data science relating to the air quality, electrical grid, water infrastructure, and natural gas infrastructure of Kansas City, KS.

Contacts: Mary Patterson, pattersonm@kckcc.edu

We partner with the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, regional TRIO programs, and Kansas libraries to build an interest in science and engineering among underserved youth and their families. Activities explore topics through a lens of resilience and socially equity, exploring connections between infrastructure, the environment, wellbeing, and a community’s response to hazards. 

Build Your Future engages middle school students in learning about extreme weather and how to cope with disasters. Led by Teresa MacDonald, the program offers three Saturday events in fall 2023 at the F.L. Schlagle Library in Kansas City, Kansas, and research exhibits for TRIO youth and their families on three Thursdays in spring 2024 at the Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Contact: Eleanor Gardner, eleanor.gardner@ku.edu