Lamaya Darby (left) and Laura Gay work on their macaroni race car.
Sam Shriver | The Lima News
LIMA — Students at West Middle School are involved in a new after-school program called Extension. Between 15 and 30 students have been participating in the program since the week before Christmas break.
On Tuesday, students were making and racing cars made out of macaroni.
Lamaya Darby, a seventh-grader at West, has enjoyed the various activities offered through the program.
“It’s fun, entertaining. There’s something to do after school, more learning and getting close with people,” Darby said.
Darby and Laura Gay, an eighth-grader at West, teamed up to make their macaroni car.
“It’s fun. We’ve built different stuff and talked to people,” Gay said.
Kristy Nelson, a science teacher, has coordinated the program.
“The whole point of the after-school program is just to provide activities for students that they may not normally get during the classroom. We meet three days a week. So currently we’re meeting Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays our goal is to do STEM activities,” Nelson said. “On Wednesdays, we’re focusing on art and the kids have been working on some string art activities of their choosing and then on Thursday our focus is on youth development.”
As part of the study on youth development, the kids are learning more about themselves.
“We’ve spent some time just studying who we are as individuals, what makes us up. We begin with creating a timeline from birth through where we are now … . We’re going to work that into a family tree so that we understand who we are as a person before we work on figuring out where we can take ourselves,” Nelson said.
Open Doors, based out of Cleveland, is helping to fund the program. It is also working with the school to provide a seminar series on online learning support for parents. The Center for Out-of-School Advancement is also a partner for the seminars.
Reach Sam Shriver at 567-242-0409.
