YouthBuild Boyle Heights
CALO YouthBuild Boyle Heights is project-based credit recovery school in East Los Angeles. We served students from 16-24 years old who were either in danger of dropping out of high school, had never attended or wished to return after a period of time outside the classroom. I worked here for three years, from when we first started, with 10 students and a box of post-its, to a student population of more than 100.
It was incredible to watch students who had previously been told they would never graduate high school enjoying the process of design and discovering the pride of accomplishment for themselves.
Circuitry
This Physical Science class was all about electricity and designing functional circuits. The first project required students to create a working model of a real-world electrical situation. Fernando, shown here presenting his finished design at our school-wide STEAM fair, created a stop light. His wiring is shown from the back as well.
Later, students created interactive buzzer exhibits for community members to interact with when they attended our school's town hall meeting about the issues of police violence in our community. Each box displayed a trivia question with 3 possible answers, with a light or sound to indicate the correct choice.
Bread making
Through making their own soda bread, students learned about the basics of sugar and carbohydrate composition, the role of acids and basis, and the chemical reaction that occurs in the oven.
Staff members voted on the best tasting breads.
