Kid Scoop News & Sonoma Raceway Awarded Partnership Prize

Kid Scoop News is proud to announce that they were recently awarded the 2014 Partnership Prize for cross-sector partnerships of organizations under 50 employees. The Partnership Prize was created by cause marketing and cross-sector partnership expert Bruce Burtch to recognize and reward exemplary partnerships which have been developed in the North Bay. The award was presented at the second annual Glowing Your Business partnership workshop, in collaboration with Bruce Burtch and NorthBay Biz magazine, which was held at the Marin Country Club in Novato.

The children’s newspaper received the award for a cross-sector partnership with Sonoma Raceway, which partnered with Kid Scoop News on a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program that leveraged the excitement of motorsports.

Kid Scoop News is a monthly newspaper written for, and by, children from first through sixth grades. The paper is currently in use by more than 1,200 Bay Area elementary teachers to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. As part of the STEM-focused program, Sonoma Raceway and Kid Scoop News created a unique challenge for local schools to create gravity-only powered model cars, made entirely from recycled materials.

Sonoma Raceway agreed to come join with Kid Scoop News to pilot this project in three schools: Meadow School in Petaluma, Waldo Rohnert Elementary School in Rohnert Park and Napa Junction Elementary School in American Canyon signed up to implement and help design the project. Napa Unified Schools District Teacher of the Year, Lisa Anderson, at Napa Junction, created a project based learning, month-long integrated curriculum around the Challenge for the entire fourth grade.

This partnership encouraged and excited students about STEM subjects, using car building and racing as the medium. The STEM Race Car Challenge looked at something fun—race cars—from a scientific perspective, and showed students how knowing these subjects connected to real life in a way that was instructive and engaging.

“If the North Bay is going to create the workforce it needs for a healthy future, STEM careers must be nurtured in today’s youth,” explained Matt Ellis, partnership director for Sonoma Raceway.

Student engineers raced their cars in a series of pre-qualifying rounds at their schools, leading up to the NASCAR race weekend. The finalists from the qualifying rounds battled for victory in the final round at Lean1 Pole Day.

The final rounds of the challenge took place on June 21, 2014 at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend at Sonoma Raceway. Third graders Kiley Mills, Stella Conroy, and Bianca Conroy from Meadow Elementary School were declared the winners.

The champs were honored to be the Grand Marshall’s of Saturday's race on NASCAR Weekend. As part of their duties, they got to yell out to thousands of NASCAR fans the immortal words:

"Drivers, start your engines!"

“This year Kid Scoop News intends to expand the STEM project to ten schools in the North Bay,” said Whiting. “We are excited to see what students accomplish at this new challenge!”

If your business or school is interested in learning more about Kid Scoop News and the 2015 STEM Race Car Challenge, please contact Vicki Whiting at vicki@kidscoopnews.com or call 707-996-6077.