Giving Compass' Take:

• Kareem Abdul Jabbar helps kids in Los Angeles gain access to STEM learning by offering a free, week-long education camp sponsored by the Skyhook Foundation in the Angeles National Forest. 

• How sustainable is this approach to STEM learning? Are there opportunities for the kids to follow up when the camp is over? 

• Read about how donors support STEM learning from the Giving Compass Guide on STEM education. 

Kareem Abdul Jabbar is taking his shot helping narrow the opportunity and equity gaps with his Skyhook Foundation and Camp Skyhook. The Los Angeles nonprofit helps public school students in the city access a free, fun, week-long STEM education camp experience in the Angeles National Forest.

Every week throughout the year, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Unified School District, groups of 4th and 5th graders attend Camp Skyhook at the Clear Creek Outdoor Education Center, one of the oldest outdoor education centers in America. The hands-on science curriculum allows students to study nature up close: take water temperature in a stream; soil or forest samples during a hike; study the local wildlife or explore the stars. That's alongside the traditional fare of hiking, swimming, and campfire songs.

Abdul-Jabbar puts the spotlight "on environmental literacy and the need for students to be given the opportunity to learn about science in a place where they can do their own investigations and experiments," says Gerry Salazar, director of outdoor and environmental education programs at LAUSD. "We don't have rivers and streams at LA school sites."

"For me, the most rewarding thing is some of the feedback that we get. The popularity of the program speaks for itself. The kids are turned in the right direction, and that really counteracts the influence of gangs and the negative parts of just popular culture that makes learning, in some instances, not cool. We're going to teach the kids that it's cool to be the next George Washington Carver. There's nothing wrong with that. We hope that they learn about Luther Burbank and want to find out what he was all about."

Read the full article about STEM learning by Eric Westervelt at NPR