K - 12 Outreach
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Roosevelt Elementary School |
What do you get when you combine Gonzaga’s students majoring in science and education with local elementary classrooms? Great chemistry… and other fun science too!
Gonzaga University’s outreach program, Science in Action!, teams up pre-service teachers, biology, and chemistry majors with local K-6 classrooms to do weekly science experiments and activities that align with the district curriculum. Activities range from altering liquid densities to make an egg float to student-directed investigations on factors contributing to mold-growth on a bread ecosystem. Most of the activities not only emphasize the scientific content being learned in the classroom, but also the process of science itself. The elementary students have loved the Gonzaga students because they “make science fun. Not just Step 1, Step 2, etc. They helped us expand our science learning” (anonymous student comment).
Not only have the elementary students enjoyed Science in Action, Gonzaga students have discovered that participating in the program is rewarding and valuable. Education major Kelly Norris reflected “Science in Action has been one of the most beneficial service learning placements I have been in. It not only provided me with an opportunity to teach lessons once a week in a classroom, but also gave me experience teaching science to elementary school students. Science is a very hands-on subject, and thus can be difficult to teach to younger children without losing control of a classroom. This semester has given me the confidence I needed to teach science in my future classroom.”
Over the 2008-2009 school year, 61 dedicated GU-student volunteers allowed Science in Action to serve more than 250 elementary students. As more teachers are learning about the program, more student volunteers are always needed. If you are interested in participating, please contact Mindy Howard, Science Outreach Coordinator in the Biology Department (howardm2@gonzaga.edu, 509-313-6642) for more information.
This program will fill Service Learning Requirements for GU students.
Below are some Science in Action! activities.
Darwin's 200th Birthday
To celebrate Darwin's 200th birthday, Gonzaga University students in the science education outreach program, Science in Action! went to area elementary schools and did the "Battle of the Beaks" (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/lessons/birdbeaks/birdbeaks.html) and "Clipbirds" (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/lessons/clipbirds/) exercises to demonstrate how natural selection works. Shown is Roosevelt Elementary's 3rd/4th grade classroom doing the "Battle of the Beaks" exercise. These outreach activities were sponsored by the Society for the Study of Evolution (http://www.happybirthdaydarwin.org/).
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| Gonzaga Biology major Warren Carter demonstrates "Battle of the Beaks" |
Then the Roosevelt Elementary students give it a try! |
