Varsha Swamy recently spent four days sharing the worlds of science, technology, engineering, and math with dozens of students at De Vargas Elementary School in the Cupertino Union School District.
Varsha, a 15-year-old sophomore at Cupertino High School, held free workshops last week and the week before as part of her efforts to earn her Gold Award with the Girl Scouts. Varsha has been a Girl Scout for 11 years and is currently ranked as a senior.
“I believe that kids can learn and enjoy STEM immensely using fun hands-on projects, especially if backed by conceptual understanding and community values,” Varsha said.
The Girl Scout Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, according to the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. The award is open only to girls in high school and challenges scouts to make a difference in their little corner of the world.
Varsha has been providing STEM sessions for schools and Family Supportive Housing Centers in San Jose. She learned that De Vargas Elementary is currently transitioning into a STEM-based curriculum over the next three years.
“It became clear to us during that discussion [with the school] that the students would directly benefit from my sessions,” Varsha said.
Each of the workshops focused on different aspects of science, technology, engineering, and math. The goal was to get kids thinking about science in everyday life.
“I chose the topics to provide a chance to allow kids to do hands-on fun and understand the concept behind the fun activity, and to push them to think about applying at home what they learned in our sessions,” she said.
On Aug. 27-28 and Sept. 3-4, students got hands-on lessons in topics like chromatography, tree rings, volcanoes, rockets, solar power, Java, motors, and geysers.
Varsha was hoping her students would walk away with a curious outlook toward STEM subjects and extend their passion for play things like video games with a “how it works” attitude, she said.
The workshops at De Vargas were for students who were in grades 2-5. Initial signups were full within 15 minutes. Popular demand got Varsha and her family to increase capacity. Some students and parents have since reported back to Varsha that some experiments learned during the workshops were tried again at home over the past weekend.
“In fact, at the end of the last session, several of the kids exclaimed that they wanted the workshops to go on forever,” Varsha said.
Varsha’s leadership skills were put to the test by controlling a room full of more than two dozen energetic children over four days. Her older sister, Vinitra, younger brother, Jishnu, and her mother assisted her during the workshops. Vinitra and Jishnu are also involved in scouting.
“The main thing I learned about being a teacher from this workshop was that kids naturally love hands-on activities,” she said. “Continually challenging them with new items of interest, showing the connections between STEM, music, art, and their day-to-day lives made it easier to grab their attention.”
Many of Varsha’s other community projects in the past years have been in STEM areas. She has also been recognized for other Girl Scout awards and honors, as well as science fair awards, including first place in the Synopsys Science Fair.
