PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Panama City’s United Hands Project is using STEM education to teach kids how to cope with mental health challenges.
This year’s camp brings together kids ages 7 to 17 for hands-on activities designed to strengthen confidence, resilience and real-world coping skills.
Each day focuses on a different branch of STEM. On the first day, the focus was science, with students exploring questions like how the brain affects the body and how diet affects mood through plant-based lessons.
The kids learned how plants grow and how to take care of them, then connected that science to how they can take care of themselves. For 11-year-old Madelyn Richardson, the lesson inspired her to take action in the community.
“I have learned how plants grow and it has inspired me to help my mom with the community garden that she’s doing,” Richardson said.
Sophia Crittenden, United Hands Project co-founder, said the camp gives students tools to process recent challenges.
“When you think about them going through Hurricane Michael, then you had COVID, then you had wildfires and ice storms and all these different things and I feel like doing something like this gives them hope, gives them empowerment, gives them a voice,” Crittenden said.
On Saturday, the community is invited to attend the final day of the camp at FSU Panama City where the students will be showcasing the work they do throughout the week. That kicks off at 8:30 a.m.
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