Originally started as a senior project by Emily Anderson, Seeds in STEM is all about sparking early interest in STEM fields for students from underrepresented, low-income communities. It focuses on promoting academic achievement, equal opportunity, and critically making STEM feel accessible and exciting through hands-on, story-driven workshops.
The program runs through ISLA/LAES 411 and is structured around two key pillars:
» Seminar: Students explore academic papers on the intersection of tech, culture, and society.
» Critical Project Work: Teams apply what they’ve learned by co-creating educational STEM projects with and for local communities.
We’ve partnered with schools across the county, from Templeton High to Juan Pacifico Ontiveros Elementary, to make these experiences real, relevant, and grounded.
Workshops often follow a storyline and are broken into stages– this makes STEM approachable and helps students build confidence through play. Cal Poly students gain experience in everything from curriculum design to cultural sensitivity, all while building meaningful connections in the community.
I first took LAES 411 as a sophomore, where I worked with my project group to help plan the year's activities. The activities included an audio/visual storytelling experience, motion capture, and a few other STEM-themed activities.
The following year, I returned as a Student Lead– designing and teaching multiple iterations of JavaScript-based workshop for elementary and middle schoolers. These included activities where kids coded their own animations and learned coordinate grids using P5js. Most students had never done any sort of programming before, so I made sure to make each step simple and clear.
As a senior, I stepped into a co-instructor role as a teaching assistant. I worked closely with my professor, Dr. Harsh to plan and structure the entire course: building weekly seminar content, managing logistics, and supporting Cal Poly students as they created their own community-facing STEM projects.
This experience taught me a lot about designing with (not just for) other people. On the practical side:
» I learned how to plan a multi-week project across multiple schools, teams, and deliverables– and how fast things fall apart if you don’t
» Got comfortable coordinating with multiple parties: public school teachers, high school robotics teams, and college students across majors
» School calendars change constantly– and that flexibility isn’t optional, it’s the job
» Early exposure and storytelling can completely change how young students see STEM, and the importance of seeing yourself within a story
Most of all, I learned how to bring structure to ambiguity, and how to guide a team through the kind of creative, community-centered chaos that makes this work so rewarding.