AspireED

Watch Alyssa Huang's TEDx Talk Here. AspireED's Alyssa Huang recently spoke at TEDx Youth. In her TEDx talk, "Where the Real STEM Gap Begins," Alyssa reflects on her middle school Math Team experience, which sparked her interest in understanding why girls often lose confidence in math and science. She explores research showing that gender and socioeconomic STEM gaps arise from similar barriers, including limited early exposure, lack of encouragement, stereotypes, and a shortage of role...

AspireED teaches students chemistry - by making ice cream in a bag. "Delicious ice cream is based on chemistry," said Alyssa. "Food science was my first introduction to chemistry, which I learned in the kitchen starting in middle school." Alyssa started baking very seriously in 5th grade, when COVID hit and she was looking for a new hobby. She began taking French pastry classes and food science courses online, got hooked, and soon launched her own baking business, which she has continued for...

After three and half weeks of patient waiting, the butterflies have emerged! The students have been writing their observations in journals, documenting how caterpillars ate and grew continuously, then climbed to the top of their cup, created a silk button, hung upside down, and transformed into chrysalids. We transferred the chrysalids into a butterfly pavillion. The chrysalids quivered from time to time when touched or if the pavillion shook gently, but were otherwise quiet. Then one day, a...