InnoWorks
InnoWorks aims to provide middle school students from disadvantaged backgrounds with an opportunity to explore real world applications of science and engineering principles. The program promotes teamwork, enthusiasm for learning, and serves to encourage career interests in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEM2) by running a free week-long summer camp run entirely by University of Michigan undergraduate and graduate students.
On a national level, InnoWorks has chapters in Duke (founding chapter), UPenn, University of Maryland, University of Arizona, the Bahamas, Harvard, MIT, and more. In 2007, InnoWorks won the 2007 BR!CK Award, an award that CNN dubs the "Oscars of youth service awards," and in 2009, InnoWorks at Michigan won a Michigan Leadership Award for Program of the Year and received honorable mention for Outstanding Student Organization. Last year, InnoWorks collaborated with the Ypsilanti school district and worked with students from both Ypsilanti East Middle School and Ypsilanti West Middle School. The theme for last year's camp was "Making Sense of Senses," which focused on the human body's five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Activities included measuring sound with oscilloscopes, launching baking soda/vinegar rockets, and building light-sensing Lego robots to navigate a maze.
This year, InnoWorks plans to reach out to Lincoln Middle School, and the theme in development is titled "Explorations," a curriculum that is expected to offer exciting new experiments to be unveiled this coming summer. Please visit http://www.innoworks.org for more information on InnoWorks.