History


Our History

Founded in 2011 by Marlene Reynolds, KITES puts exciting STEM education in the hands of underrepresented children. Our first program, Project bioEyes, was presented at the A.W. “Tony” Matthews Boys and Girl Club in Mableton, GA. The camp was held for two sessions, from June 13-17 and from June 20-24. The first session served kids ages eleven and twelve, and the second session was for ten-year-old children. In total for both weeks, about fifty kids were in attendance. For five consecutive days, the students had the opportunity to live the life of a scientist. Campers had the opportunity to use real scientific tools, such as a stereomicroscope, pipettes and petri dishes. The campers learned about the life cycle of the zebrafish, genetics and cells and they particularly had fun making a cell model from jello! Things like cherries and jello were placed in a ziploc bag to represent the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane respectively. The camp culminated with an awards ceremony with personalized certificates for each “Jr. Scientist,” and a cookie cake decorated with zebrafish and the words “Congratulations Jr. Scientists!” One Jr. Scientist summed up the goal of the program by stating, “We are all scientists, but we just don’t know it yet.”