Dreaming the big dream. Getting middle school aged children excited about math and science

THE 3RD PROJECT...Aye, aye, aye! I got whacked over 1,000 times with the reflex hammers that your doctor uses on you to test your knee reflexes! No bruises, but I think I know why Heidi chose me to be the teacher at that station in our Dreamers activity day...I am the biggest one in our team, so OF COURSE the big guy can take the hits. Some of those little middle schoolers have some strength! 

If you have not read the other blogs of the other participants in the program, then I will give you a quick rundown about what it is exactly I am talking about. 

On this project CH2M Hill and the Colorado "I have a Dream" Foundation came together and collaborated a plan for us (Apprentice Teams) to expand on to get young children (middle school aged) excited about science and math. CH2M is a private engineer

ing corporation owned by the employees and the Colorado "I Have a Dream" Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged children succeed in school from 3rd grade up through their graduation from high school. These children are referred to as "Dreamers". I need to b

e frank with you...I hate math and I am a business major, so there is a minor co

nflict there especially with me being a Marketing major. After meeting with CH2M and the Dreamers Mentors my team got off to a huge start with our teams two project leads, Heidi and Erin. The activity day we set up for the Dreamers had 3 sections: Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Biology had 5 separate sections in its own.

 

Heidi set up a great biology section for the Dreamers to participate in with a lot of hands on activities. Little did I know that I was going to be a big part of the hands on participation by being hammered on with the little rubber reflex hammers that Heidi had found in some dark dungeon of torture. the five stations are detailed below:

1. There were dead cats that the kids got to dissect
2. a bone scavenger hunt
3. how the heart works station
4. sheep brains section where the kids learned how the human brain works along with the ability to touch and poke the sheep brain. 
   
5. Whack-a-Noah section. Actually, it was a knee-jerk reflex section discussing how it takes only 51 milliseconds for the reaction to occur along with other reflexes of the human body, but mainly a way for the kids to exert some pent up energy by whacking me with the hammers.

The 2ND section of the day was held in the MSCD physics lab with Physic

s Profess

or Doug Howey. Professor Howey taught the kids velocity, acceleration, and other types of movement by utilizing cars on a track with a motion sensing device that graphed the speed and movement of the car. The kids had fun with this activity, especially with launching the cars off the track! Made me almost make me dirty my knickers and trousers until Professor Howey showed me that the cars were designed to take a beating. Thank the lord!

The 3rd se

ction consisted of Chemistry experiments. There were 5 stations as well in this section that Dr. Eric Ball from MSCD's Chemistry experiment helped us out with. They were:

1. Collapsing cans with David and I. This demonstrated how atmospheric pressure and temperature can cause a can to implode and crush itself when heated then dropped into a cold vat of water
2. Slime and silly putty with Giedre, the French teacher. I say French because the Dreamers thought she was from France. This was the most fun station for the kids because they got to understand how polymers, when put together, can form certain products like Slime. 
3. Intro to Stem Kits - The STEM kit is a kit my team put together to further the Dreamers interest by enabling them to conduct experiments at home with household products. Heidi demonstrated the Cartesian Diver and Chromatography experiments that were included in their kits. 
4. Erin taught how acids and bases interacted by utilizing cabbage juice as our base and dropping in different types of acids ranging from ammonia to citrus juice.
5.  Dr. Ball demonstrated the "screaming Gummy bear" and other experiments that required a protective window and ventilation to be demonstrated. The Dreamers really liked this station due to the fire, noise, and explosions. Pretty cool stuff

The Dreamers really enjoyed their day at Metro with my team and I. They were engaged and had expressed an impressive amount of interest in the experiments we conducted. I remember one of the Dreamers, Tracy, expressing that he wanted to be an Astronomer. I thought that was pretty cool for him to want to learn more to possibly become a future scientist of the stars.