Week 5: Making Progress
Welcome back to my blog!
This week was extremely exciting! I had the weekly program lesson, and I was deployed to a Boys and Girls Club school site as well. I went to a school in Ossining and started a garden project with them. They have some spare dirt space for a garden, so I spent a few hours with students after school working to research some of the native plants that they have in their area to plant in the garden. We discussed how native plants were beneficial for the environment, as they use less water and help support local ecosystems.
It was really neat to work with new students in a little bit of a different age group. The students I worked with at the school site were mainly all middle school students, so it was interesting to solely devote my attention to middle school students.
At the Remington Clubhouse we did the “carbon snake” experiment. It was super visual and fun, and the whole clubhouse wanted to participate in the experiment. Elementary school students saw how fun the experiment looked and got involved with it. Overall, I had approximately 40 students working with me to do the experiment!
The program at Remington is starting to turn more into a clubhouse wide initiative. Almost all of the club members are getting involved in the afterschool science, and it is so cool to see a lot of students showing an interest in STEM and environmental science. Furthermore, I am happy with the increased membership of the program, for I am able to help more kids get passionate about science, and I will have more data for my final findings. I am still deciding what experiment to do next week, but stay tuned for an update on that in my next blog post. I look forward to reporting back on it soon!
-Luc
2 Replies to “Week 5: Making Progress”
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Glad that you were able to discuss the importance of native plants for the enviornment, Luc! What does the “carbon snake” experiment consist of? Do you think the experiment would have a similar effect on middle/high school students?
Thanks Sid! The carbon snake experiment consists of sand, baking soda, and lighter fluid. By creating a baking soda ditch in the sand and then applying lighter fluid and a flame the baking soda and sand burn and seem to grow like a snake rising from the sand. The experiment is very visual so I think middle and high school students would definitely find it super interesting! I would also be able to explain more to them about the chemical reaction that is occurring during the the carbon snake reaction.