Hands-on science for 3500 underserved kids

This fall we started working at two schools in Oakland: Acorn Woodland and Cox Academy. We are working with the schools' youngest students: Transitional Kindergarten (TK), Kindergarten, and First Grade!

TK students are learning about gravity ("gravity pulls everything down") and explore what happens when we let go of objects, when we throw them up, and when they roll down a ramp.

Kindergarteners play Simon Says Forces as they learn that forces have a size and a direction. They explore ways of using forces to change the speed of an object or its direction of motion.

First graders explore how different materials interact with light (opaque, transparent, translucent, reflective) and that in order for us to see an object, it must reflect light. The picture shows students modeling how light rays might reflect off a door and into our eyes so we can see the door.

We spent much of the summer updating and improving our curriculum. We highlighted how we teach scientific reasoning - from understanding which data is relevant to answering a question, in kindergarten...to working out what information is needed to answer a question and then planning and conducting an experiment to gather data in fifth grade.

This week we went back to the schools! Kids are excited to have us back. They ask if we are doing the same expeirments as last year (of course not! we have new ones), are happy to see returning adult volunteers, and meet new ones.

Thank you for supporting hands-on science.

Links:

• http://scienceiselementary.org