The opportunities and challenges that SiS addressed was to offer STEAM education to all of our 36 communities, bridging the out-of-school time learning gaps that exist throughout different low and high income neighborhoods. We set out to do this with a limited budget through the months of March through May. Armed with strategic planning with the librarians at the local libraries and expert partners in the field, the program far exceeded our expectations.

SiS offered two main components: The first was the workshops/hands-on presentations at the 36 locations. These included: Bugs Inside Out! (presentation by an entomologist), De-Bugging Coding (coding workshop), Bee Builders (presentation by a beekeeper), Sunshine in a Jar (solar energy DIY), Paper Insects (mathematical origami), and Circuit Bugs (circuitry DIY). The second component was a Citizen Scientist activity in which families were provided bug collection kits, collected bugs and contributed to the Barcode of Life.

SiS was able to provide free educational STEAM opportunities to 1,280 children. Nearly every event was at maximum capacity for attendance, many with waiting lists. Children and parents responded that they would like to see more of these classes offered in the future and the library is excited to continue this on an annual basis. Through the Citizen Scientist component, children discovered new species of bugs that were added to the national Barcode of Life.