General Information for ASU Students
Elementary school children get differing amounts of encouragement to attend college. One of the goals of "I'm College Bound" is to make sure that every child sees that they can go to college too. The idea is that elementary and junior high school kids relate well to college students in a way that influences their aspirations. Basically, the cooler and more like the kids the students are, the better :) We want each kid to meet as many ASU students with different backgrounds and aspirations as possible.
ASU students perform science demos in the elementary school classrooms. The demos serve both to bring some educational science programs into the elementary schools. Importantly, the demos are also integrated into the elementary classroom reading, writing and science curricula, and the Arizona Department of Education Science Standards. The demos are also the vehicle to bring college students into the classroom.
If you want to participate, you will be asked to observe and help Dr. Gould performing the demo
once, so that you can get an idea of the points to be emphasized, and be alerted to any potential safety issues. After that, a small group of you will take the same demo into other classrooms on different dates.
A the moment we are reluctant to take the demos to schools other than Kino, for safety and educational reasons. Lots of people do science demos in schools, but the kids often learn very little, it is like "watching TV" in class. An important part of our program is integration of the demos and lesson plans and science curriculum. We know we can address these issues properly at Kino, but have no control over them at other schools (yet!).
If you are interested in participating, send us an email at the address below.
Guidelines for Participants
You participation will vary, depending upon the circumstances, check with Dr. Gould. If you are asked to do a demo on your own, you should probably get to the school around 15 minutes or so before you are scheduled to do the demo. Go to the school office and sign in.
When performing the demo, ask the kids questions as you go along. Give plenty of time to allow them all to think about the question before picking one to give an answer. Be positive, say "good answer" etc. The first time any kid shouts out an answer without raising his/her hand, immediately make it clear that you will only takes answers from kids with their hands up. Make sure that as many kids get to participate as possible. You can direct questions to specific kids who may be not paying as much attention. This is one place where the teacher can help you, perhaps by directing questions to particular kids, or by controlling the pace of questioning.
Let the kids ask their own questions. You may not know all of the answers! Don't worry about this, it is OK to say "I don't know" once or twice, or say tell them that they will have to come to ASU to learn more science before they can understand that. It is also OK to say that the answer to a particular question is not known by anyone and is currently being investigated by scientists. Finally, it is also OK to tell tham that to answer that question you would have to go to the library. Take this opportunity to tell them that the library is one of the most important tools a scientist has!
If it hasn't come up in the discussions yet, take time at the end of the demo to prompt them to ask questions about college life. At this point you will have to play it by ear. You know what we are trying to do, so do what seems the best at the time.
Pay attention to safety issues. Although nothing we do is dangerous, it is important that nobody gets hurt. It is also important to show the kids that we take safety seriously. On the other hand, don't dress in goggles, lab coat, gloves etc. One of the things we are trying to teach the kids is that just because something is called a chemical that doesn't make it a bad thing! If you are going to mix something or do something that might emit a gas, for example, put on your safety glasses so that the kids can see that we think and are concerned about safety. Take them off afterwards to interact with the kids or when nothing is happening so that you don't look geeky:)
Finally, despite the tone of these "guidelines", this isn't meant to be a formal or stuffy. If the guidelines don't make sense for your particular group or situation, don't follow them (although always pay attention to safety issues!). Be yourselves and have fun!.