Time well spent out of lab

On Tuesday I was walking to the middle school where I lead a weekly afterschool club for a group of girls on the broad topic of "ocean science". I was feeling a bit torn and overextended because this takes away an afternoon per week from lab work, which has been piling up lately. Additionally, the first few weeks of this club were a bit chaotic, and I wasn't sure how engaged some of the girls were. I was wrestling with whether or not I was actually doing something important, or whether I was just wasting time that should be spent trying to get DNA out of rocks that don't feel particularly like giving it up.

I arrived at the school to learn that my co-mentor had to quit the program, and that I was flying solo. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I actually like it better this way... not because I didn't like working with her (I actually did), but because I am a bit of a control freak, and not having to cooperate and compromise with someone else is often easier for me. I was given a second high school student helper, and set off to do an exciting dissection activity with the girls. I started club by talking with them about how I had been frustrated not feeling like I was being listened to, and asked them for a bit more respect since the only reason I am there is for them to have fun learning about what I think are some of the coolest topics in the world.

I was pleasantly surprised at how club went. By no means were they all behaved perfectly, but when I asked for attention I got it, and more importantly, they were totally engaged in the activity. Mostly I think this is because it was a particularly exciting activity (dissecting sea stars - we don't call them star fish in our club), but it might have had a bit to do with the fact that I laid out for them ahead of time how I wanted things to progress. I told them we were going to walk through a few questions slowly together, and then they would be free to investigate on their own. My high school helpers were awesome, and everyone had a good time. I walked back to lab confident that the past 3 hours had been a worthwhile investment in these young women, and reminded that this aspect of science (call it outreach, teaching, or hanging out with kids) is not something I am willing to give up just because I don't have time for everything.

Who knew I would like 1st graders?

I have been volunteering in a local 1st grade classroom once a week for the last couple of months. I run a weekly "science club" for the girls in two classes, while the boys have their club with male mentors in an adjacent room. I have to admit that I was not really all that into it at first. These kids are so young that it really felt more like babysitting than teaching. Also, a few of the girls are very clingy, and I just don't have the patience for that. The last two weeks I started to have a change of heart. I think part of it was learning how to keep the attention of a 7 year old, and part was my allowing myself to be a bit more enthusiastic. I remember one day walking over telling myself that I was going to enjoy it this time, and it worked. Anyhow, today was our last meeting, and I realized that I had gotten through to them. I had come up with some questions based on what we had been doing that I was going to make a game out of. I fully expected to have to lead them to the answers. Many of the questions were about vocabulary words I had mentioned a few times, and some were more abstract questions trying to get to the point of the experiments we had been doing. I was so impressed because not only were the girls attentive and not calling out (I told them I got points when they called out, and they got points when anyone got a question right) the got probably 85% of the questions correct on the first or second try! It was a very tangible way of showing them (and me) that they had learned a lot. Even better was the enthusiasm they showed when I asked them if they thought science was cool... all hands shot up and the squirms were basically uncontrollable. It was completely adorable. I realized that I haven't been wasting my time, and that some of these girls might actually benefit from being introduced to science in a fun way at such a young age. The dry ice fog was just the icing on the cake that made it a really great end to the semester. Part of me is worried that I really don't have time to volunteer, and that I should wait until I get more settled into grad school. However, when I think about it, I'm not sure I'll ever be less busy, and if outreach/teaching/volunteering is important to me I need to make it a priority starting now!