Our team is participating in Amplify Austin, the biggest giving day in Central Texas.
In this 24 hour period, your donation is amplified with matches from sponsors and incentives through I Live Here I Give Here. Any amount helps. Please consider helping us provide applied science, field research, STEM networking to local youth.
Our young scientists spend many hours studying topics such as epidemiology, genetics, coding, forensics, ornithology, engineering, etc. They know that COVID-19 is believed to be an example of zoonosis. They can identify dozens birds or fossils on sight. They build amazing machines from hovercraft to gliders to balsa structures weighing in at 3g but holding 15kg.
As a small independent team not affiliated with a school, we don’t have a school inventory, we buy everything ourselves, from lab gear to chemistry sets to training materials. Our coaches are the parents.
One of our goals is to build funds to hire a part-time coach, to ensure year to year continuity in coaching.
We also conduct a 10 day field research trip to Costa Rica each summer, studying leaf cutter ants and the co-development of their beneficial bacteria alongside parasitic fungus and bacteria that could destroy the colony. This has significant possibilities in fighting antibiotic resistance. Our field research training is led by world-famous researchers in this area, teaching and working with the students.
This is the only program of its kind in the United States, and we are the only non-school based team conducting this trip. We include schooled and homeschooled students in our group.
We want to develop a scholarship fund to offer this Costa Rica field research trip to underprivileged students in the Austin area. Each trip slot costs $3,750, and we want to
What makes our team special is that we don’t winnow down 150 applicants for 45 spots, as some of our large competitors do. We are an inclusive and small community that develops every student into young scientists who have won their events against these larger competitors. Our mission is to nurture their enthusiasm for science and develop them into confident young scientists.
We have taken in students who are intimidated by science and by the end of the year seen them confidently competing in 4-5 events. We have an impressive track record of acceptance into prestigious science university programs and consistently placing in the top half of teams at the Texas State Science Olympiad competition.
These future scientists are not driven by scores, or tests. They have passion for all things science and have found a supportive and inclusive community to nurture their entry into the STEM world. Please help on their educational journey.