STEM Outreach Opportunities

STEM Outreach Opportunities

Math Tutoring at Jackson Street School

Most semesters we have a team of undergraduates working with the 4th grade teachers to provide math support. The tutoring is most often every week and is on Friday morning. This semester they are hoping to run the program from 10:30 to 11:15. There are some other opportunities to assist with math at JSS so if this day and time does not work please let me know what would work for you and I will look into it.

Family Science Night at Jackson Street School

Smith College brings a number of activities for families to explore. Sometimes we work with individual children, others entire family units. Last year science outreach offered three activities and other from the college jumped in too. We usually see about 300 folks at this event and it is a blast. We arrive at about 5:30 for a pot luck dinner and go to our activites at about 6:00 and stay until between 7:30 and 8.

Before School Math Club – Engineering activities

We leave at 7:45 and return for 9:00 classes after working with students in grades 1-5 on simple engineering activities. We work collaboratively with parent volunteers in this mixed grade setting to introduce the students to the design sequence with a design and build activity. We work with about 35 students in each session.

Big Brothers, Big Sisters

We guide the Big Sisters and their “littles” through a science activity. I am hoping to have two volunteers to work with the bigs and littles to support them through the activity.

Homework House Science Fridays

We are looking for 2-4 volunteers to work with Homework House students on some science or engineering themes. Ideally at least some of the volunteers could join us on a regular basis so we have some continuity. We leave at about 4 and return at about 6.

HCC – Adult Learning Center – Microscopy and basic cells

This long time partner is an adult GED program based in Holyoke. They have asked us to bring the new stereo microscope kit and create a unit investigating single cell organism in pond water. We usually leave at about 5 and return shortly after 8.

HCC – Adult Learning Center – Engineering Design Process

This long time partner is an adult GED program based in Holyoke. They have asked us to introduce their students to the engineering design process and basic electricity with our flashlight building kit. We usually leave at about 5 and return shortly after 8.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Are you artistic or creative? Enjoy brainstorming or event planning? If one of these qualities is a match with you, them joining th IGTED planning team is the perfect opportunity for you to contribute those skills to increase diversity in the STEM field!

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGTED) is an annual event that brings over 120 middle school-aged girls onto our campus to explore different fields of engineering for ad day with activites that are palnned and run by students. Some past activites include: building a hydraulic arm, designing and laser-cutting a house for celevrity clients, designing a computer game with Scratch, etc.

Tutor Springfield Teens Weekly through Project Coach (Monday afternoons at Smith)

Project Coach, a Springfield-based teen program operated by Smith’s Urban Education Initiative has several openings for volunteer tutors to serve as “Academic Coaches” during the Spring 2017 semester. Smith students work one-on-one with a Project Coach teen coach from Springfield on any number of academic or life skills. Some kids need help writing their Common Ap essay, others need help organizing their weekly workload so they can get done what needs to get done in their classes, others need help building relationships with teachers that will help them succeed in class. We have a particular need for students with an interest in tutoring in math and science.Academic Coaches meet with Project Coach teens on Monday afternoons from 4-5:30 pm at Seelye Hall. There is a special need for math skills, especially Algebra.  Some need help in science as well.

Interested?  Contact Erin DeCou in the Jandon Center for Community Engagement Wright Hall

McMahon School (Holyoke) Math & Science Support

The Jandon Center for Community Engagement is partnering with McMahon Elementary School (K-8) to create a math and science tutoring program for its middle school students (6th-8th).  We hope to run this pilot program for 6 weeks.  The program seeks volunteers who are majoring in STEM subjects, but all with a strong background in biology, chemistry, earth space sciences, physics, or mathematics (through Algebra II) are welcome to apply.  This opportunity is anticipated to take place on Tuesday mornings from 9:00 to 10:30 AM.  Consider sharing your knowledge and time with children who are eager to learn from Smith College students.  Your commitment with travel time would be from 8:30 to 11. Volunteers for this placement will need to be Child Safety Certified. (takes about 2 hrs in total and is good for 3 years across campus)

JFK Middle School Global STEM project with Finham Park, Coventry England & NASA  2:30- 3:45

February 14, 2017           March 7, 2017          March 21, 2017

April 4, 2017                     April 11, 2017           May 2, 2017

May 16, 2017                   May 30, 2017           June 13, 2017

JFK students will be conducting water quality studies and participating in webinars with NASA scientists and the  NASA’s GRACE project to learn about new technology being used to track changes in the Earth’s surface area.

Friday Math tutoring and help-  Jackson Street School,  Fridays  about 10:00 to 11 with 4th grade

The teacher would meet with the team at 10 to review the activities and groups for the day and volunteers would work one on one or with small groups to help them through the lessons for the day.  We started Feb. 17th but  volunteers can jump in any time and could use 4-5 more volunteers.

Tues. or Wed. or Thurs. afternoons 3:15 to 4:45  Bridge Street School (walkable)

The school is looking for  volunteers or teams of volunteers to offer STEM oriented activity sessions in their after school program.  I am thinking this is like an after school science or engineering or math club. They are open to most anything STEM related and other areas you might be interested in exploring with children in kindergarten to 5th grade.  We can utilize  current kits and equipment or create new materials.

Tuesday, February 28th– Before School Math Club Engineering Activities @ Jackson Street School  leave 7:45, return for 9:00 classes

Each semester we do a couple of sessions of basic engineering design with 1st to 5th graders (most are 2nd and 3rd) at Jackson Street School.  They arrive about8 and head off to classes about 8:50.  We help out along with parent volunteers as we do a Smith designed activity with the children.  It is Fun and Chaotic.  I am trying to finalize a water filtering activity to match a school wide theme on water.  This is the first of a two session activity.

Tuesday, March 7th– Before School Math Club Engineering Activities  @ Jackson Street School  leave 7:45, return for 9:00classes

Each semester we do a couple of sessions of basic engineering design with 1st to 5th graders (most are 2nd and 3rd) at Jackson Street School.  They arrive about 8 and head off to classes about 8:50.  We help out along with parent volunteers as we do a Smith designed activity with the children.  It is Fun and Chaotic.  I am trying to finalize a water filtering activity to match a school wide theme on water.  This is the second of a two session activity.

Wednesday, March 15th  6 to 7:30  Bridge Street School Science Fair,  Grades 1-5  Note: this is break week!

We have a request to have one or two hands on science or engineering activities appropriate for children ages 5-11.  They anticipate 50-75 children. Our volunteer STEM Ambassador team will decide what we want to do for the activity. It would be very helpful to have one or volunteers who speak Spanish  as there will be a number of Spanish speaking visitors and students in this group.

This is a non-competitive science fair and judging involves circulating and asking questions about their projects and suggesting achievement awards.  The actual judging request is a work in progress as I write this.

The Literacy Project-  Amherst Site  (this could be short term or long term)

This adult Literacy program operates Monday through Thursday from 9:15 to 12:30.  They are located in the Jewish Community Center in Amherst.  They are hoping to find a volunteer or two who can assist with science instruction.  In particular they need help with chemistry and physics content but  would love to have anyone comfortable in the sciences. They are open to doing one or two sessions but are hoping for a regular volunteer. Ideally volunteers have their own transportation  but we can explore other options if you are interested.

We are in the process of setting up single sessions with this group to explore zebrafish development and to go there to run a session on owl pellets and food chains. We are looking to do an owl pellet lab with them some time the week of Feb. 27th

The Literacy Project- Northampton Site (this site is a 10 min. walk from campus, right in downtown Northampton

This adult literacy program is run out of the James House in downtown Northampton. They meet Monday through Thursday from 9:15 to 12:30.  They are looking to do our electromagnetism lab activity at the James House on March 7th (Tues.) or 9th (Thurs.)  but the time is flexible.

We have a new water wheel activity that involves designing, making and testing water wheels.  The activity would likely run 2 or 3 class sessions.  We could use the activity to introduce the engineering design process or we could add some related physics and have their water wheels do some actual work. The time we do the activity with them is flexible within their 9:15 to 12:30 day as are the days.  They have identified the following days to be open.  April 3,5,6, 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27. Please let me know if you have a block of time on one or more days so we can create an instructional team.

March 24 (first session of three), Friday Science @ Homework House- March 31, April 7  3:30 to 5:30 (leave 3:00 return 6:00)

We will be working with about 15  age  -9 to 12 year old Homework House students.  The focus will be on engineering design activities and one of the activities will be a balloon powered car for 2 sessions.  We still need to decide on the week 3 activity.

March 31 (second session of three), Friday Science @ Homework House-   3:30 to 5:30 (leave 3:00 return 6:00)

We will be working with about 15  age  -9 to 12 year old Homework House students.  The focus will be on engineering design activities and one of the activities will be a balloon powered car for 2 sessions.  We still need to decide on the week 3 activity.

April 7 (third session of three), Friday Science @ Homework House- 3:30 to 5:30 (leave 3:00 return 6:00)

We will be working with about 15  age  -9 to 12 year old Homework House students.  The focus will be on engineering design activities and one of the activities will be a balloon powered car for 2 sessions.  We still need to decide on the week 3 activity.

Thursday April 6th from 8 A.M. to 10:30,  Hopkins Academy MS Science Fair  (Hadley) Science Fair

This is  a standard Science fair where individual or pairs of student s have a project that they have worked on and present to judges.  Each judge or judging team evaluates  8-12 projects(depends on the number of judges).  Each team usually suggests one or two exemplary projects and the judges try to agree on the “best of”  set for some type of recognition.  I try to get the rubric ahead of time.

April 13,  Veritas Prep 6th grade  Looking for help with sessions starting at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:45

About 90 sixth grade students from Veritas Prep of Springfield will be coming to campus for the day.  One of the three stations on their visit will be the science center (Botanic Garden and Art Museum are the others) The volunteers can help design the program or we can use a stock activity that we have used in the past.  You can volunteer for one or all of the session as your schedule allows.

April 25,  Hampshire Regional Middle School (Westhampton) grade 8

About 60 eighth grade students from the Hampshire Regional School District will be coming to campus for the day.  One of the three stations on their visit will be the science center (Botanic Garden and Art Museum are the others) The volunteers can help design the program or we can use a stock activity that we have used in the past.  You can volunteer for one or all of the session as your schedule allows.

If interested in any of these, please contact Tom Gralinski, tgralins@smith.edu, or drop by Wright 020 and talk about jumping in.