As adults, we’re bombarded by news of shrinking polar icecaps, mowed-down rainforests and species extinction. We’ve come to realize these inconvenient truths, but how should little kids learn about greenhouse gases and changing temperatures? Why should children care?
Junior Explorers, a Brooklyn-based social enterprise, is taking a unique approach to educate a generation hooked on Facebook and Instagram: they’re using online computer games to introduce introducing kids to nature and wildlife preservation. Targeted at ages 5 to 12, the games take children on a monthly “mission,” visiting virtual ecosystems across the globe from Antarctic icebergs to the African veldt. And for a subscription fee of $19 or less a month, Junior Explorers also mails a kit with additional activities and collectibles, bringing the educational content off-line.
“Everyone’s talking about the planet but we want to speak with the generation most impacted: kids,” says Anurag Agarwal, Junior Explorer’s founder and CEO. “By simply combining all things that kids love: animals, gaming, collecting and sharing, we created a truly experiential program that kids and adults can get excited about.”
A seasoned Wall Street veteran, Agarwal’s love of nature motivated him to found the company last year. On trips to the world’s greatest natural wonders — from the Barrier Reef to the Central American rainforests — he was inspired by the beauty, but also concerned it wouldn’t last. With a team made up of former Gilt Group employees, he started the company with a long-term view of reaching kids to create a generation of environmentalists.
Each mission is led by Kia and Kyle, two cartoon kids in headbands and sneakers ready to explore the world. (Eleven-year-old Kia’s role model? Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee expert. Seven-year-old Kyle’s dream job? A field scientist in the Amazon jungle.) The first excursion takes kids to the polar ice caps, where they help reunite a polar bear cub with its mother.
As they complete tasks, children rack up “Give Back” points, which, at the end of each mission, can be allocated to an environmentally-conscious nonprofit of their choice, like the World Wide Fund for Nature or the Nature Conservancy.
So far, after their first month, the company had subscribers in more than 40 states. In the next year, they’re planning to launch the program across the globe with teams based in India, Brazil and Singapore.
When kids are young, every parent recognizes their instinctive love for cuddly animals. But something happens with age, and sometimes that concern for the natural world diminishes. Junior Explorers hopes to reverse that trend, teaching youngsters that maturity means conserving the globe for the next generation.
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These Computer Science Programs Have Just What Women Want
The likes of Marie Curie and Jane Goodall may have set great examples for future female scientists, and it’s time that more women follow in their footsteps — especially when it comes to computer science.
For all the jobs available in the industry and programs to train workers for it, a mere 18 percent of computer science graduates in the United States are women. Can we balance out the gender gap amongst computer scientists? Some of the top institutions of higher learning have already started, according to The New York Times.
At Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, 40 percent of incoming freshmen are women, and almost a third of computer science graduates this year were women at the University of Washington. And that’s not all. Harvey Mudd College in California boasts that 40 percent of their computer science program enrollees are female and this year, more than half of their engineering school graduates were women — a first for the school.
As promising as these numbers are, these three schools represent only a fraction of the computer science programs in the country. The question remains – what’s their secret, and how can it spread to every school?
Unsurprisingly, there is no cure-all, but one general trend is helping out everywhere: With so many professional opportunities for computer science majors, the field in general is attracting more students — regardless of gender.
But what sets Carnegie Mellon, University of Washington, and Harvey Mudd apart is that they are grabbing potential students when they’re younger by promoting computer science at an earlier age. By hosting summer camps and training high school teachers to teach computer science, girls are more likely to gain exposure to the discipline and develop a lifelong interest in it.
Another tactic used by these schools is revamping their marketing and support systems. Harvey Mudd, for example, has featured female students in their brochures to show that it’s normal for girls to study science. “We made it very clear that being a female scientist, that’s normal,” said Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd. Plus, the school now talks about computer science as a way to problem solve (as opposed to it simply being about technical coding), putting an emphasis on its practical applications.
At Carnegie Mellon, the requirement to have prior experience in order to enter the major was eliminated and an official student mentorship program was established. By removing barriers and easing the process of becoming a computer science major, more women are showing interest.
Good news is, this can be easily replicated elsewhere.
As Lenore Blum, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon told The New York Times, “I don’t think we’re doing anything that nobody else could do, but it has to be sustained and institutionalized.”
If other schools picked up some tips from this trend-setting trio, America could be well on its way to unlocking a whole new set of minds for computer science.
MORE: Can Google Crack the Code for More Female Computer Scientists?