Wesleyan’s Action Science Kids (ASK) program not only teaches Middletown elementary students about science, but makes a political statement by the presence of ASK in the classroom.
“There is still a discrepancy between [the number] of men and women that work in science,” said Kate Longley ’06, ASK member and biology major.
One of the major goals of this program is to reinforce the notion that in a male dominated field, women make skilled science teachers and professionals.
ASK is funded by the University-based Women in Society program, a steering committee for female-identified students who study science.
According to ASK member Deborah Schwartz ’07, the female members of ASK also want to be memorable examples of women practicing science for their students.
“When the kids think back years from now and say, ‘who first taught me about iodine?’ they say, ‘That woman from Wesleyan!’” said Schwartz. “It’s there in memory.”
ASK has worked with Spencer, Lawrence and Macdonough Elementary Schools in Middletown this semester, working with two classes of fifth graders in each school. According to Longley, each class has about 25 students.
The ASK instructors go into each classroom three times a semester and lead the students in interesting science experiments. ASK collaborates with the classroom teachers to design experiments that compliment the school’s curriculum.
One of the more recent projects ASK has done in the classroom is to teach students about Darwinism and evolution then have them create a species of birds and explain the evolutionary features of their animal.
In another project, students determine whether household foods are acids or bases by observing how the chemicals in the food react to an iodine solution.
“These experiments are different from the normal routine [of teaching science],” Longley said.
The experiments, according to Schwartz, can take some time to organize. ASK receives most of its material resources from the University’s science departments, but cleaning soiled materials, planning new experiments and procuring new supplies can take up to three weeks.
There are 20 active Wesleyan students in ASK. The members are divided into teams that are designated to specific classrooms. According to Schwartz, the Wesleyan students really get to develop a genuine student-teacher relationship with the fifth-graders through the experiments. It is the excitement that the kids have for the experiments that keep ASK members dedicated to their work.
“When one of them does not come, they always ask, ‘Where is the other girl?’” Schwartz said. “The kids always look forward to seeing us.”
The work that ASK has been doing in fifth grade classrooms across Middletown, Longley said, has attracted the attention of Assistant Professor of Biology & Biochemistry Manju Hingorani. According to Longley, Hingorani has observed some of the ASK experiments to attempt to incorporate service learning into her introductory molecular biology course next semester.
Leave a Reply