The Science and Technology Education and Awareness non-profit organization, the Pan African Technical Association (PATA), is very fortunate to be a recipient of funding from Southern California Edison and the Edison International Grant Program. PATA would like to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the staff of the Philanthropy & Community Investment Department, the employees of Southern California Edison and the shareholders of Edison International.
PATA utilizes the funding to present a Saturday Science and Technology Academy in South Los Angeles for students ages 11 to 18. Attendees of the program reside in the greater Southern California area and travel from cities such as Compton and Long Beach to participate in our activities, which include Science and Technology discussions, visits to places of interest such as the California Science Center, and classroom hands-on demonstrations.
“Not only are the children excited about the Saturday Science and Technology Academy, the parents also are extremely happy,” states Mr. Yaw Frederick Davis, the Executive Director of PATA. Many of the parents have shared with Mr. Davis their feelings of happiness and joy with having a program in South Los Angeles that exposes their children to scientific and technological concepts and informs them of the benefits of careers in Science and Technology.
Mr. Akil Bell, the Program Manager of the Saturday Science and Technology Academy shares, “It is the hands-on activities that keeps the children coming to our sessions.” One of these hands-on activities includes performing simple programming through use of the Arduino circuit board and open source programming framework.
Program participants using laptops to work with the Arduino circuit board and learning about servos and electronic speed controls for Radio Frequency controlled vehicles. In this activity (depicted in the images), students learned that by changing the value of a program parameter, they could alter the rate or frequency which the LED flashed on and off.
PATA is excited about the success it is having implementing its model of a Saturday Science and Technology Academy. We are grateful to SCE and Edison International for your support and look forward to a continued partnership.
