My students and I have been involved in considerable educational outreach during my years at Wooster. During the course of a semester, it takes time and energy to support the K-12 setting, and I am so proud of my Wooster undergraduates – primarily majors and minors of our department – for always volunteering to work with the students in our community. I have only occasionally participated in B-Wiser Science Camp and Expanding Your Horizons due to my spring/summer teaching commitments. Most of the time, my students and I have engaged with the local nursery schools or public schools, because that is where my experiences in teaching started. Here is a glimpse of some of our educational outreach activities:
The College of Wooster Nursery School
Faculty in Scovel Hall have been interacting with the Nursery for years. In fact, Mark Wilson and Greg Wiles had established this relationship decades before I arrived at Wooster. Now, I can look forward to the Nursery School making the one block trek to Scovel Hall for major events each year: “Rocks & Fossils Day” and “Dinosaur Day”. Their time spent in Scovel Hall is designed as an active learning/discovery environment wherein the budding scientists can see specimens they do not have at the Nursery School.
Cornerstone Elementary
My students and I were consultants for the Cornerstone PlayLab Rock Garden, which is an amazing outdoor educational experience built adjacent to the Cornerstone playground. Our duties were to: (1) provide a workshop for the elementary teachers on the PlayLab Rock Garden, (2) provide a workshop for Cornerstone Elementary’s Science Club on “Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils”, and (3) identify all of the rocks specimens at the PlayLab Rock Garden and write up a report for the Cornerstone teachers to use in their classes.
Melrose Elementary / the former Wayne Elementary
Several teachers first at Wayne Elementary (before it was demolished) and later at Melrose Elementary asked my students and I to come and give several different presentations to 4th/5th grade classrooms. These presentations tied directly into their science lessons and the State Standards. We gave presentations on “Volcanoes and Igneous Rocks” and “Fossil Plants and their Communities”.