Partners

The IDEA Cooperative project is lead by the Science Museum of Minnesota, as part of the Learning Technologies Center and Youth Science Center programs.

Partners
Acknowledgments

Partners
Saint Paul Public Schools is a key partner, assisting with program design, recruitment, parent and family involvement, and connecting content back to school-day curriculum. With more than 41,000 students, SPPS is Minnesota's second-largest school district, and serves a diverse student population: students hail from countries throughout the world, speak more than 70 languages and dialects, and come to the district with an array of educational experiences and skills.

Saint Paul College is also a key partner: most IDEA Coop youth team meetings take place in SPC's lab and shop space. SPC is a community and technical college that offers comprehensive opportunities for learning, including technical, general and career education that enhances personal knowledge, advances economic opportunity and benefits a diverse population, business/industry/labor and the community.

IDEA Cooperative has a number of additional partners that contribute resources, expertise, space, equipment and design projects to ensure that the youth participants have a high-quality experience. They include:

Community Technology Empowerment Project

CTEP is an AmeriCorps project that helps low-income youth and adults use technology to better access social, civic, educational and economic opportunities. CTEP Americorps members will work with IDEA Coop staff to lead the youth teams.

CommonBond Communities

CommonBond Communities are a major provider of affordable housing in St. Paul. CommonBond will be a potential “client” for invention projects of participants throughout the program, and IDEA Coop participants will present activities at CommonBond sites in St. Paul.

East Side Family Center

The East Side Family Center (ESFC) is a networking agency for families to access community resources. They provide a variety of services to approximately 1,000 families each year, including life skills workshops, English classes, field trips, and basic needs assistance. IDEA Co-op staff and participants will contribute articles about program activities to ESFC’s monthly newsletter, reaching an audience of 3,000, and lead design activities at selected ESFC family events.

East Side Arts Council

ESAC offers arts enrichment for St. Paul youth and educators. They host a storefront gallery on the East Side, offer in-school and after-school programs for youth (mainly elementary-aged), and conduct an annual arts education event for Twin Cities educators. IDEA Co-op staff will present a workshop at this event each year of the program, reaching a total of approximately 120 educators. ESAC will also display participant projects in their gallery.

Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley

The Girl Scouts runs several school-based programs for girls at Harding and Johnson High Schools: Hmong Women’s Circle, Latinas Unidas, and Beta Gamma Girl Scouts (targeting African-American girls). Program staff will work with these groups to recruit high school participants.

3M Corporation

3M, with its international headquarters in St. Paul, is a generous supporter of both SMM and SPPS and will participate in the program in a variety of ways. The company will provide employees as mentors to provide technical assistance for youth projects; offer insights during career events; assist with machining student-designed projects; host field trips; and host internships through their Science Training Encouragement Program (STEP).

University of Minnesota's APEXES program

The University of Minnesota’s Academic Programs for Excellence in Engineering and Science
(APEXES) in the Institute of Technology promotes academic excellence in engineering, physical sciences, and mathematics, with a focus on African American, Chicano/Latino, and Native American students. APEXES will provide student mentors for program activities, and offer presentations to IDEA Coop participants to make them aware of the University’s pre-college and college opportunities that specifically target under-represented groups in STEM.

University of St. Thomas

St. Thomas (UST) hosts a week-long summer engineering camp for promising 7th-grade and
11th-grade girls, called STEPS (Science Technology & Engineering Preview Summer Camp for Girls). UST
staff and program staff will reciprocally recruit middle school STEPS participants for IDEA Co-op, and high school IDEA Co-op girls for STEPS. UST will also provide mentors will host field trips to the campus.

Youth Venture

Youth Venture (YV) is a national organization that supports youth-driven social entrepreneurship. YV staff lead workshops for youth and educators on variety of entrepreneurship aspects, including how to identify a community need, brainstorm solutions, and develop a business model. YV awards $1,000 grants to teams of youth who propose innovative and sound proposals for solutions to local needs. Local YV staff will provide a yearly professional development workshop for IDEA Co-op staff, on helping youth to identify community needs. They will also meet with the INVENTION CREWS each year, to discuss how their ideas for design projects could receive funding through YV.

Acknowledgments
IDEA Cooperative would like to thank the following individuals, organizations and businesses for supporting the program:

• Warners' Stellian Appliances, for their generous donation of a refrigerator for the IDEA Lab space at Saint Paul College.
• Carlos Perez and Eric Ketelsen, for leading a two-day workshop for Invention Crew on creating expressive and technical drawings, and on using Google SketchUp software. Carlos is an architectural designer at The Benham Companies and Eric is an artist. You can see his work at Fierce Frog Studios.