CalTeach and Local Schools Team Up to Energize Learning across Merced County

UC Merced's CalTeach program is opening new pathways for younger students to experience hands-on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning, academic support and early exposure to a college environment.

The CalTeach program, present at every UC campus that offers undergraduate education, primarily focuses on preparing highly qualified STEM teachers for the California education system. Over the program's 20 years of existence, however, the academic portion of CalTeach has been supplemented by a large outreach component that directly impacts K-12 students.

Through major summer and after-school initiatives - including fully funded STEM camps, increased tutoring capacity and immersive learning opportunities - UC Merced's CalTeach program and the Merced City School District are working together to strengthen the community's educational pipeline.

For Chelsea Arnold, director of CalTeach at UC Merced, the mission is simple: Get students excited about learning.

"Our goal is to show them what's possible," she said. "If you can get a kid excited about something, that switch gets turned on, and they want to continue learning more."

The Bobcat Summer STEM Academy, running since 2016, now serves about 950 students each summer, a dramatic increase from its original 100 participants. Camps range from one-day workshops to weeklong sessions, all designed to immerse K-12 students in creative, hands-on STEM activities led by UC Merced undergraduates, graduate students and faculty partners as well as community college students.

This summer, a new Merced City School District grant will transform access: 600 students - 100 per week for six weeks - will attend the STEM academy free of charge, lifting a major financial barrier for local families. A successful pilot last year brought 100 middle schoolers to campus at no cost; the new commitment expands participation sixfold.

"We want the whole county to know that this is a resource," Arnold said. "Kids can come to campus and have a blast doing different STEM camps all summer."

CalTeach staff see early engagement as essential. Younger students experience exploratory academies such as nature studies or engineering play, while upper elementary students begin experimenting with programming and electronics. Middle schoolers engage in activities designed to keep them invested in math and science, and high school students dive into applied skill-building, including data science for conservation using tools such as Python and R.

The academies have already changed academic trajectories - including one student who, after discovering a passion for physics at a CalTeach camp, moved from a non-college-prep track into AP Physics, earned an A and eventually transferred to UC Merced, said Melissa Amarillas, student services advisor for CalTeach.

Arnold said the experience opens doors for students early.

"It's an amazing opportunity to connect their kids to a world-class research university," she said. "It's our job to show them that this is their university and their place."

Beyond summer learning, the program is also widening its year-round academic impact. CalTeach recently finalized an agreement with Merced City School District to supply 32 after-school tutors for K-8 students starting this fall, in addition to its current 45 in-school tutors.

Amarillas said the additional support will benefit students, schools and parents.

"Right now in Merced, there's a waitlist of 400 to 500 kids who could be in after-school programming, but the schools don't have enough staffing," she said. "This expansion of tutoring services is a win all the way around. Our students get work-based learning experiences with stipends, parents get a safe learning environment for their children after school and it takes a little bit of the burden off the schools, too."

About 140 more students can receive after-school assistance because of the new agreement, said Isabella Jaurique-Pouncey, communications specialist for the Merced City School District.

Amarillas said the presence of college students has a powerful influence on younger learners.

"Younger students see college students who look like them and want to know more," she said. "They start to see themselves as college students, too."

The district shares that enthusiasm for the expanded partnership. Jaurique-Pouncey said the collaboration will help reduce the strain on after-school programs.

She said this is the first time CalTeach tutors have joined the district's after-school program.

"They're shadowing members from the ASSETS (After School Student Education: Teamwork for Success) team using the same curriculum, so they can get an understanding of their role, and then they'll begin doing it on their own," she said.

The benefits extend both ways. Younger students work with role models who look like them and demonstrate what college can do for them, while UC Merced students receive paid, work-based learning opportunities, classroom experience and resume-building credentials.

The CalTeach program gives students majoring in STEM fields, as well as other subjects, the ability to explore teaching as a career option and to earn their teaching credentials if they choose. Students who enroll in the program attend Natural Sciences Education (NSED) classes that equip them with knowledge of best teaching practices and innovative learning strategies. These students are also paired with mentor teachers in area school districts. Each year, UC Merced students spend a combined 6,000 hours observing and teaching lessons in local schools.

Tutors don't have to be in the Natural Sciences Education minor, but they often are because students seeking teaching credentials must demonstrate classroom experience.

"Currently, almost a third of all newly credentialed math and science teachers statewide are alumni of UC CalTeach program," said Professor Mayya Tokman, a faculty director of UC Merced CalTeach and an executive chair of the system-wide CalTeach program, "and the outreach component of CalTeach is a win-win collaboration between the UC and school districts, providing undergraduates with early opportunities to explore careers in education as well as directly benefiting K-12 students."

CalTeach leaders call the tutoring expansion a critical step in strengthening the region's college-going culture and developing future math and science teachers.

The third program enhancing learning opportunities for area children this summer is CalTeach's residential Yosemite camp for middle schoolers, offering three days of environmental science exploration in partnership with NatureBridge and Merced City School District at the National Environmental Science Center in Yosemite National Park in late August. Students live in the new dorms, learning about forestry, fire ecology and environmental science, and spend a day in Yosemite Valley. The program is free of charge to participants and includes transportation and meals

Across all initiatives, CalTeach leaders say all these exposure experiences build confidence, curiosity and academic momentum.

As Arnold put it: "Our goal is not just to fill their buckets of knowledge, but to get them to ask questions, to think deeper and to have fun while doing it."

Lorena Anderson