Each summer, the Saint Louis Science Center’s Youth Exploring Science (YES) program takes STEM learning to the local community through a variety of collaborations with community organizations, off-site pop-ups, and even special opportunities at the Science Center. The YES program, a four-year program that supports local students from underserved or traditionally underrepresented communities in STEM through their high school years. In YES, teens build the knowledge and experience needed for in-demand STEM jobs while learning science concepts, developing STEM activities, and engaging the community. By giving teens access to real world skills, YES teaches STEM and empowers students to see themselves as future engineers, innovators, and community leaders. (Read more about the most recent class of YES graduates in the Summer 2025 issue of NewScience.) YES continued their yearly tradition of turning outward to engage the community, sparking curiosity for aerospace, computer science, integrative medicine, agriscience, and more. Check out highlights of this year’s summer of STEM from the YES program!
Building Curiosity with Summertime Science
Held at the Taylor Community Science Resource Center each year, the Summertime Science camp engages children and adults with hands-on STEM activities developed and led by the first-year YES teens. This summer, the YES program took a modified approach, combining the program’s Engineering and Integrative Medicine and Well-Being focus areas with the Summertime Science program for a new Synergy focus area. Summertime Science this year served more than 650 elementary students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and more than 90 adult supervisors.
Threading Computer Science Throughout the Science Center
In June and July, YES teens in the program’s Computer Science focus area set up technology-focused tabletop stations in different areas of the Science Center, ultimately facilitating more than 5,000 hands-on interactions with guests. In GROW, the teens facilitated guest interactions with a farm simulator game, bridging agriculture and technology. In Makerspace, YES teens held a PC-building activity and introduced curious guests to the Science Center’s Esports Program. Outside the Science Center’s limited-time special exhibition, POMPEII: THE EXHIBITION, YES teens offered a virtual reality tour of the Italian city, introducing many guests to VR for the first time. But the most popular offering from the Computer Science YES teens took place in GameXPloration, where guests could take part in a robot coding activity.
Sharing STEM Learning with the St. Louis Community
The STEMtastic Camp, made possible thanks to the generous support of the Boeing Company, returned once again to inspire imaginations about aerospace and astronomy. Taking place in the Riverview Gardens School District, the two-week camp saw 11 YES teens engage 15 elementary students. The teens practiced inquiry-based facilitation with hands-on activities like building, testing, and iterating on glider and parachute designs; guiding remote, app-controlled Sphero robots through a runway obstacle course to practice coding, logic, and spatial awareness; using simple chemical reactions to launch small canister “rockets” and learn about propulsion, pressure, and Newton’s laws of motion; and much more. These immersive experiences allowed the campers to explore and problem-solve as they deepened their understanding of STEM concepts. YES teens in the Agriscience focus area shared STEM learning with summer camps at Little Creek Nature Area and Mathews-Dickey Boys’ and Girls’ Club. For two weeks at the Little Creek Nature Area, the teens engaged upper-elementary and middle school youth in topics like environmental science, conservation and wildlife, and engineering. Collaborating with local organizations like the St. Louis Zoo, Washington University, and BirdSafe STL, the YES teens explored animal adaptations, endangered wildlife in the Missouri/Illinois region, and even the engineering of bridge and shelter design using index cards, foam, and recycled materials. (Read more about the Little Creek Nature Area program and its impact from the St. Louis American here.) At the Mathews-Dickey STEM & Agriscience Camp, the YES teens facilitated an 11-day program that combined engineering, ecology, food science, and art for a dynamic summer camp experience. With themed days like Bug Builders, Garden Engineers, Plant Superpowers, and more, young campers explored the natural world through inquiry-based learning and creativity. Pop-Up Science activations brought aerospace- and aviation-themed tabletop activities to locations across St. Louis, including City Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis Public Library, and even the Science Center’s own McDonnell Planetarium. Reaching more than 1,330 people, the teens led community members in activities like programming and navigating Sphero robots; exploring the physics of flight and testing paper airplanes; participating in digital flight simulations; and more.
