New to the list of Community-Based Learning projects
this year is "Science Buddies," a program which helps Mount Holyoke
students to get integrated with the South Hadley Public School system and get
their feet wet in the education field, all while assisting elementary school
teachers and forming relationships between MHC and South Hadley's Mosier
Elementary and its students and teachers.
Allie Lau relates her experiences in tackling the program this semester,
and her hopes for its future.
By Allie Lau
Edited by Lauren Quirici
Created by Professor Rachel Fink in Mount Holyoke’s
biology department, the “Science Buddies” program matches MHC students with
classes at Mosier Elementary School in South Hadley. Each student attends the classes weekly to
help during science lessons. The program
was created as a way to share the science resources of MHC with local
elementary school classes, and as a way to expose MHC science majors to the
field of education. Science Buddies is new to CBL this year, the program has
been operating for approximately ten years.
As a CBL Fellow, I recruit and manage all the Mount
Holyoke Science Buddies. Professor Fink
continues to be involved in the program and helps me in running it. In the beginning of the school year I matched
all the Science Buddies up with classes at Mosier. Throughout the semester I’ve been supporting
the buddies by orienting them to Mosier Elementary School, organizing training
sessions, and facilitating reflection meetings. I also am the primary liaison
between Mosier and the Science Buddies program, so I check-in with the Mosier
teachers and gather their honest feedback.
I was a Science Buddy myself last year, and it was a
lot of fun. When Professor Fink asked if
I would be interested in being a CBL fellow for the program, I agreed because I
thought it would help me learn many leadership skills and teach me about
science outreach programs. I am very interested in science education, and
working with Science Buddies has allowed me to not only see what science
education is like in the elementary classroom, but also to experience the
effect that being in the classroom has on MHC science majors.
I plan to be the CBL fellow for Science Buddies at
least for the 2013-2014 academic year, if not for next year as well. My goals for this semester were to establish
Science Buddies as a reliable and useful resource for the Mosier teachers, and
as a program that would allow them to expand their science teaching capacity. I
also hoped for the Mount Holyoke students to learn about the importance of
science outreach programs. By December, I wanted to have all the Buddies
regularly going to Mosier and building relationships with their teacher and
class.
Though it took a little longer than expected to get
all the Buddies placed, they have now all been attending classes at Mosier for
over a month. We have oriented them to
the school and held a reflection meeting in which we discussed the rewards and
challenges of their work in the classrooms. This month we have arranged a
training session for the buddies and we will touch-base with the Mosier teachers.
Accomplishing my goals for the program has been
coming along gradually, and understandably so.
I am hoping to build a strong relationship with the Mosier teachers, and
strong relationships will take more than one semester to establish. The biggest challenge I've faced has been
coordinating schedule differences between the Mosier and Mount Holyoke
calendars. We want the buddies to be
able to go to Mosier as many times as they can before the end of the semester,
but not all of our school holidays match up with Mosier’s, and the length of
our semester limits the amount of time that MHC students can be with the Mosier
students in December.
I have realized that things can take longer than you
expect them to, even if you have planned for them. This experience has taught
me to be more direct in communicating my expectations. I have also learned a lot about when and
where to be flexible with my plans and goals.
I have become more comfortable in my role as CBL
fellow. I have learned to communicate
more effectively, and I have enjoyed getting to know the Buddies this semester.
Though we ran into some challenges, we were able to have 12 Buddies work at
Mosier this fall, which I am proud of. I
love supporting the Buddies and the Mosier science classes.
