USC JEP STEM Education Programs

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The Joint Educational Project's STEM Programs include the Young Scientists Program, the Medical STEM Program, and the Wonderkids Program.

10/20/2026

🌳 What an incredible day of learning with an amazing group of educators!

USC JEP STEM recently hosted a hands-on professional development workshop featuring a four-lesson curriculum developed in collaboration with Dr. Sam Silva as part of his National Science Foundation–funded research on how trees affect air quality.

Teachers experienced the curriculum as learners while exploring:

🌱 Lesson 1: Investigating tree growth and using tree rings as evidence of environmental conditions
🗺️ Lesson 2: Creating tree maps and “ground-truthing” the data through firsthand observations
🌳 Lesson 3: Exploring the relationship between trees and air quality
📊 Lesson 4: Using air-quality sensors to investigate conditions around trees

We are grateful to these thoughtful and enthusiastic educators for spending the day learning with us—and for bringing this locally relevant environmental science curriculum back to their students and school communities!

USC Joint Educational Project USC Dornsife U.S. National Science Foundation

10/19/2026

What happens when you combine cutting-edge automotive technology with the creativity of young engineers? 🚗🎈💨

Yesterday, fifth-grade students and their families from several USC JEP STEM partner schools joined us for a special hands-on engineering workshop with our corporate partner, Hyundai Motor Company!

Thanks to Hyundai, students had the exciting opportunity to explore a new 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 9 Calligraphy. They discovered some of its innovative features, including 2nd row power captain’s chairs seats that automatically shift to make the back row more accessible, a center console that can slide toward the rear passengers, an expansive panoramic sunroof, and technology that allows the vehicle to move remotely using the key—like a giant, life-size remote-controlled car!

After exploring the real vehicle, our young engineers designed cars of their own. For their first prototypes, students used cardstock frames, straws as axles, and plastic wheels. They tested their designs on a racetrack and measured how far each car traveled. Then, they applied the engineering design process by adding counterweights and balloon propulsion for a second iteration—and oh BOY, did those redesigned cars travel farther! 🎈🏎️

We ended the evening by celebrating our young engineers with certificates, Hyundai bags, and hats.
A huge thank-you to Brandon Ramirez, Vanessa Perez, Hyundai, and everyone who helped make this memorable evening of exploration, innovation, and engineering possible!

10/15/2026

This week, our K-5 WonderKids learned about Ancient Human DNA 🌍🧬 with Anamika Nanda, a USC PhD candidate in the Integrative and Evolutionary Biology program.

They learned about DNA base pairs, reconstructed their own ancient human DNA bracelets, and learned how ancient DNA can be extracted from fossils and explored whether their mock human DNA samples had ancient human DNA!

USC Joint Educational Project USC Dornsife Anamika

10/06/2026

We interviewed future scientists at Mack Elementary and asked them why they like science !! 🧬 🥼 See their fun response below 🤩. Post by Nickol Georgy nickol georgy USC Joint Educational Project

10/05/2026

Our 5th grade scientists have been exploring the world above us! From learning about the layers of the atmosphere and following water through the water cycle to creating clouds in a bottle, students got to see weather and Earth science come to life! 🌎☁️🌊 Post by Jimin Han Jimin Han USC Joint Educational Project

09/22/2026

Our virtual after school Wonderkids program starts next week and all of the activities supplies have been packaged and shipped 📦 of to a record breaking 70 students ‼️‼️

We are excited to explore the following topics this Fall:

🪐 Space
🧬 Ancient Human DNA
🌍 Earthquake Safety
💄 The Science of Beauty
🚑 Addiction Science

Here is a sneak peak at some of the activities we will be doing.

If you want to know more check out our YouTube https://m.youtube.com/?ra=m where we will be posting weekly recaps on the lessons and experiments!

09/17/2026

We asked our 4th graders what they want to be when they grow up, and their answers were limitless! As Ms. Steele mentioned, these students are beginning to envision themselves in careers they may not have considered before. Through JEP STEM we hope to inspire the next generation of doctors, engineers, and leaders of science!🔬

09/14/2026

Our virtual afterschool program Wonderkids kickstarts on September 28th and features 5 fun STEM topics this semester!

🔭 Space
🧬 Ancient Human DNA
🛘 Earthquake Safety
💄 Science of Beauty
🏥 Addiction Science

Below are the names of the guest scientists for the fall 2026 semester. This semester we have two JEP STEM alumni from USC Dornsife and two current JEP STEM staffers sharing their expertise. Fight on ✌🏽

09/09/2026

USC JEP STEM is off and running! This last week our team of TAs observed their classrooms for the year to prepare for a year of teaching!

08/25/2026

Please join us in welcoming our seven newest JEP STEM educators! 🎉🔬

🍎 1st Grade: Alejandra Banuelos and Sumia Dawla
🌱 2nd Grade: Maggie Wang
🧬 3rd Grade Medical STEM: Meggie Nguyen and Dylan Luong
🚀 5th Grade: Kevin Law and Nico Matias

We’re excited to have them bring hands-on, inquiry-based STEM learning to elementary classrooms across our partner schools this fall. Welcome to the JEP STEM team! ❤️💛

USC Joint Educational Project USC Dornsife

Address

801 W 34th Street
Los Angeles, CA
90089

Website

https://dornsife.usc.edu/young-scientist-program/

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