mesa legend - NEWS - Science day reaches out to youth

November 15, 2005
NEWS

Science day reaches out to youth

Danny Wenger
Mesa Legend

“…5…4…3…2…1!”
A group of fifth graders crouched by the sidewalk near the Outback Theatre exploded into screams of delight. They watched in excitement as several small, rocket-propelled cars streaked down wire tracks to a finish line.
It was all part of the excitement for 400 fourth and fifth graders. The students came to participate in a day of hands-on activities hosted by MCC. The students came from four different elementary schools. Galveston Elementary from Chandler, Longfellow Elementary and Edison Elementary from Mesa, and Valley View Elementary from Phoenix, were the schools able to participate in this year’s event.
This year marked the fifth year that MCC hosted a Science Day. Donna Benson, a geology professor at MCC, has been the coordinator of the event since it began. Benson said she started the event to help kids learn.
“We wanted to actually show the kids that learning is fun,” Benson said. “That learning science can be fun.”
The Science Day is the combined, team effort of several science departments. Each department set up its own station. The stations were from the Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Astrology, Engineering, Life Science, Geography, and Anthropology departments. Benson said that she let the faculty in charge decide what they would teach the kids.
“The only requirement is that it must be a hands-on activity,” Benson said, “That’s the most important.”
Laurel Hardin, a teacher from Valley View Elementary, said the hands-on was good for her students.
“It’s all hands-on,” Hardin said, “it’s very appropriate to do.”
This year was Hardin’s first coming to the Science Day. She said she was impressed calling the event, “well-organized” and, “energetic.”
Andrew Poelman also attended the activity. Poelman has been teaching fourth and fifth graders at Valley View Elementary for two years. He said he thought the activity was beneficial because it gave the kids a good background.
“A lot of them don’t have don’t have exposure to these different areas of science,” said Poelman, referring to the students, “ I think it’s a good background if later on they want to learn more.”
Poelman said he would be able to reuse the experiences of the children as a “foundation for building up more activities like this.”
Benson said she tried to invite schools that are considered “Title One” schools. Title One schools are schools where students might not normally have access to activities like the Science Day.
Science Day also helped spark an interest in attending college.
“They are really excited about coming to college, because they know that the people running these stations are students,” Poelman said. “Now they know the place, and they know that learning goes on here.”
“They get excited about this,” said Crystal Mueller, referring to the Science Day. “They learn stuff . . . but it’s more about getting their interest in a science program, or invoking the thought that they can come to college, that this isn’t an impossible dream.”
Mueller was a volunteer MCC student who worked at the pudding volcano station. MCC students mainly ran the stations.
Patrick Fgeld was also a volunteer and agreed with Mueller. “They may not learn a whole lot onsite,” Fgeld said. “The goal is not to educate them a whole bunch today. The goal is to get them interested in science so they will want to learn about it in the future.”
Fgeld said many of the students he talked to now have a desire to attend MCC. Several of the students didn’t have the goal before.
Fgeld has volunteered at previous Science Days. He was able to read one student’s reaction to the day in a letter the student wrote back to MCC.
“One kid put in there,” said Fgeld, “‘I never thought about going to college before, but now I’ve decided that I’m going to either Harvard, Yale, or MCC.’”