Five hundred and seventeen kids whose families are clients of Sunnyvale Community Services will get a bonus at the annual Ready-To-Learn Backpack Distribution from August 7-12—STEM kits assembled by a multi-generational team of volunteers with the nonprofit Stemmable, Inc., on April 26, Global Youth Service Day.
Each STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) kit holds the makings of a mini-catapult: ten popsicle sticks (unused!), three rubber bands, a small plastic bottle cap, and a handful of colorful mini-pom-poms for launching. What does a homemade toy catapult have to do with STEM?
“It’s physics!” chorused Wyatt Sibiski, a senior at Irvington High School in Fremont and Stephen Langan, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose.
As it turns out, launching a pom-pom involves the catapult principles of levers, force, and projectile motion. Stored energy is used to hurl a projectile—in this case, a pom-pom rather than a big stone directed at enemies during an ancient time of war.
Sibiski and Langan were among the 28 Stemmable elementary school through college-age volunteers at The Watermark at San Jose, home to the two senior volunteers. They sat at a line of long tables, laughing and chatting as they bagged the catapult parts assembly-line style—filling 517 paper bags in just one hour.
“I’m glad we have a lot of people today. We got people to volunteer who normally wouldn’t by asking volunteers to invite everyone they know,” said Ruth Li, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High School and the CEO and founder (in 2023) of Stemmable.
To finance the catapult project, Li applied for and was awarded a 2025 Hershey’s Heartwarming Young Heroes Grant of $250.
Her mission is to provide educational STEM opportunities for less-privileged Bay Area boys and girls, especially younger children.
“Though Silicon Valley is the high-tech center of the world, growing up here, I noticed few girls in my STEM classes, tournaments, or camps,” said Li, who plans to study biomedical engineering. “I want to break the barrier and ease the intimidating sense about science by introducing STEM concepts to both girls and boys through fun and hands-on experiments.”
Li’s immigrant dad and mom, Lun Li from Taiwan and Robin Zhang from China, are teaching their daughter the ethic of hard work and service to others.
“We want to provide the best for our only child,” said Lun Li. “But that doesn’t mean whatever she wants, we’ll give it to her. We want her to go through the same struggle her mother and I went through. Overprotecting her is not helping her.
“Running a nonprofit is the perfect chance to learn to motivate others and herself. It is the perfect opportunity to serve others,” Lun Li continued.
The first Asian female to serve on the Sunnyvale City Council and then to become vice-mayor in 2025, Linda Sell was invited to make closing remarks at the Stemmable volunteer work party.
“You are the inspiration and leaders in the next generation,” said Sell. “You will be the first of something great. You are the light and together will light up the world through your good work and inspiring accomplishments throughout your lives.”
Visit the Stemmable website (www.stemmable.org) to learn about its other activities, all run by Bay Area teen volunteers: in-person educational workshops and STEMtrek: Exploring Physics, a fundraiser day camp for five- to 14-year-olds from June 16-20.
Want to make your own catapult now? Multilingual directions are available on the Stemmable website.
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