Week 2: Beginning the Program

Welcome back to my blog!

This week I started the afterschool program and got to teach my first session! I was initially nervous to start teaching, but building bonds with my students have really helped me integrate into the Boys and Girls Club of New Rochelle. My first lesson, which was yesterday, was an introduction to the program. I taught middle school this week. I had around 10-15 students in my class. We discussed what environmental science actually means to students, as well as what climate change is and how it will affect our future.

Additionally, we also talked a little bit about energy and did an experiment! I introduced students to the concept of energy, and we talked about kinetic and potential energy. I then put students into groups of 2, and we did an egg drop project. For the egg drop, students worked in their groups to first design and draw out a model for a contraption that would protect an egg from a fall. Students could only build their models with the materials that I gave to them (popsicle sticks, balloons, straws, paper plates, tape, scissors, cups). Then, after everyone designed and built their models, we did the egg drop. Each group had the chance to stand on a table and drop their egg drop contraption. Only 1 egg managed to survive! The winning group was then awarded a prize from my on-site advisor’s prize box.

I chose to do the egg drop with students because it was an exciting experiment to kick off the program and a fun way to introduce energy. We were able to talk about potential and kinetic energy and how it related to the egg drop, and students had fun doing the egg drop as well. Next week I plan to go deeper into energy and start to discuss reactions. Additionally, I plan to do a carbon snake experiment with them! Stay tuned for my updates about it next week!

-Luc