Picture your summer filled with nothing but experiments, formulas, and science. What kid really wants to spend the summer doing science, and, if they do , is it fun?
YES Teen Bryan Owens works with younger community group children.Summertime Science—an eleven-year program incorporated with the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC)—offers children of community groups from all over the St. Louis Area the chance to explore basic science concepts of physical science, biology, chemistry, and technology. Children and their adult leaders come from groups such as Gateway IT's Gateway Michael students, Annie Malone Early Childhood, and George W. Carver House. "This program teaches over hundreds of children and adults", according to Diane Miller, SLSC Senior Vice President of School and Community Partnerships.
The local teenagers form four different teaching groups in this component. Currently, Summertime Science includes 58 teens and 8 supervisors, which is a big jump from where it started in 1997 with 7 teens.
"If you want a good experience to work with people , go for it , " says second-year YES teen Alex Walters. He adds that the program is important because it provides a chance to learn about science and the environment. And first-year Youth Science (YES) Teen Leslie Williams states, "[It’s a] good program that you can learn life skills at, and have a good time with staff and people here."
These teens work together to develop lessons around the theme "Learning to Respect Our Planet". These lessons help the teens and their groups learn about the harmful effects of greenhouse gases and pollution. The teens work very hard on the Science Corner to plant food and plants. “We are so excited for our Science Corner harvest and promoting the concept of green cooking to showcase the teens hard work this summer, " adds YES Supervisor Betsy King.
I think that these activities sound really great. Did you all develop a set of lessons or lesson plans on the activities that could be shared with teachers? I think that a lot of teachers would like to see them and use them with their students.
For the most part we come up with the lesson plans. There is a lot of preparation that goes into the lessons, for example we do the lessons while we are trying to get everything in order to see if it would be interesting for the kids. Most of the activities are for groups of younger kids but I think that we could find a way to change the activity to fit older kids as well.
I think that these activities sound really great. Did you all develop a set of lessons or lesson plans on the activities that could be shared with teachers? I think that a lot of teachers would like to see them and use them with their students.
For the most part we come up with the lesson plans. There is a lot of preparation that goes into the lessons, for example we do the lessons while we are trying to get everything in order to see if it would be interesting for the kids. Most of the activities are for groups of younger kids but I think that we could find a way to change the activity to fit older kids as well.