ZELIENOPLE — Amy McKeever summarized an upcoming program at the Zelienople Area Public Library succinctly: “real people, real stories, real science.”

The program, “Pushing the Limits,” is supported by a National Science Foundation grant intended to bring science, technology, engineering and math education to public libraries nationwide. Beginning Aug. 24, teens and adults have the opportunity to read, learn and discuss four topics — tradition, transformation, motion and heritage — with community and science partners.

This is the second year the library has hosted the program, with more than 50 people in regular attendance in 2018. In the coming months, educators from the Jennings Environmental Education Center and Chatham University’s Eden Hall campus will facilitate conversations — something McKeever, a clerk at the library and the program’s facilitator, considers to be a backbone of the program.

“The discussions that we had last year were really engaging,” she added.

The program aims to tie together science with everyday life. In the transformation module, for example, attendees will read a book about a boy from Malawi who, in the midst of a famine, built a wind turbine for his village.

“(We will) think of physical transformations as material, but also how it can transform a person or community,” McKeever said.

Input from readings, human interest videos and community members’ life experiences will guide discussions at all four sessions — on Aug. 24, Sept. 28, Oct. 26 and Nov. 16 — McKeever said.

“We’ve got some really good people joining in,” she said.