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Dreams Are Built

Student Community Innovation Program

The Student Community Innovation Program (SCIP) offers high school and college student volunteers a unique opportunity to make a difference in their community through innovation. Guided by talented mentors and equipped with cutting-edge fabrication resources, students work together to develop a solution to address a community need. From ideation to prototypes and eventual implementation, SCIP empowers students to dream big, welcome growth and develop invaluable technical and life skills.

summer 2024 scip project

Join us for an upcoming Summer Information Session to learn more about joining SCIP and making a difference in your community this summer!

  • Saturday, April 13, 2-3pm

  • Thursday, April 18, 5-6pm

  • Saturday, April 20, 2-3pm

CLICK HERE to rsvp

"SCIP showed me that I can take an active role in my world; I learned the innovative and thorough thought process needed to solve real-world crises. With other SCIP students, I founded a Gardening Club at my school, implementing the leadership and precious life skills we learned from SCIP." - Connor Lafo, 2021 SCIP team member


Past SCIP Projects

2023 SCIP team members

2023 SCIP TEAM

A group of 19 students from Sarasota and Manatee counties teamed up with the Manatee County Health Department to create innovative and engaging sculptures that raise awareness of preventative health initiatives. Working with local artists and sculptors, the team took the art concepts from sketch to creation using the Fab Lab's high-tech machinery. They also created educational signage to accompany each piece. Check them out below!


2022 SCIP TEAM

Over the summer of 2022, a group of 20 students worked in partnership with Crowley Museum & Nature Center to design and build habitats for local wildlife in need. They also developed a custom educational website to help raise awareness of wildlife conservation and created eye-catching signage for each habitat. Click here to check out the website they made.


2021 SCIP TEAM

Over the course of two months, twenty high school and college students worked alongside Sarasota Urban ReForesters, Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund Inc., Rotary Club of Sarasota Bay and Solutions To Avoid Red Tide to design and construct a micro forest at Stoneybrook Golf & Country Club. The students also developed an exciting educational website component that greatly expanded the project's impact. The 2021 SCIP project has energized the community about critical environmental issues and created a lasting ecological resource for the gulf coast.


2020 SCIP TEAM

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, through Zoom meetings and remote work, nearly 20 students worked with talented mentors to develop an interactive storybook web-app to teach elementary school students how to return to school safely. The app, COVIDucation.net was completed in partnership with Sarasota County Schools. Another team of students designed, prototyped and built a touchless door handle for local businesses and organizations to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Suncoast Science Center
4452 S Beneva Road
Sarasota Florida 34233
info@suncoastscience.org
941-840-4394

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