Last week 47 students from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District traveled with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Middle School Academy to Anchorage for a hands on week at the University of Alaska.
Program Director Josephine Mattison said the students participated in activities like building their own computers, constructing balsa wood bridges and testing them and dissecting cephalopods.
Mattison: “Probably the number one thing with this opportunity is not only just exposure to all of these topics and different activities but also providing students some guidance to reach these goals. So with the computer build, students are agreeing to successfully complete algebra one before high school and we want students to do this so they’re entering high school on a great track for those high level math and science classes which will in turn help them be prepared when they enter the university.”
Aurora Borealis student Sydney Juliussen attended the program.
Juliussen: “Oh it was a great one, I got a taste of college life and with me being in a small charter school I am kind of isolated from that kind of experience, so it was really cool for me to have a taste of it.”
She and Redoubt Elementary student Avery Reid both said their favorite part was building the computer.
Reid: “Building the computers was really fun, it wasn’t too hard, it wasn’t too easy, it was just the right amount of stuff to put together and stuff.”
ANSEP’s summer programs extend to 5th grade students and Director Mattison said their goal is to ignite student interest at a young age and keep them coming back to the program until they are enrolled in ANSEP’s university program through UAA.
To learn more about the ANSEP Middle School Academy, visit ANSEP’s website.
