Piper Krase
- For my outreach experience, I went to Clarke Central High School to help a class of students learn how to count the colonies of bacteria, from the soil samples, that grew on the agar plates. The students divided into around 4 groups and a few students from our class were in charge. I worked with Kenleigh to teach our group how to accurately count the colonies and to insert the data into the spreadsheet. We were essentially the teachers for that short class period, as we were supposed to control the group and teach them something too. Honestly, maybe because it was the last period on a Friday, lacked focus and it was hard to get them to be engaged in what we were doing.
- Before we got to the school I was nervous because I didn’t feel like I fully understood the information, and the functionality fo the spreadsheet, enough to teach them and get them to understand it too. When we initially took the plates out of the plastic container, they were all jumbled and messed up. This threw me off a little because I was expecting them to at least be in order, maybe that would help me feel like I could at least explain a little. Dr. Brickman came over and helped us organize them into the groups which eased my stress because I finally felt like I had a grip on the information and would be able to explain it better. It was frustrating how we were unable to get our group’s full attention. It felt like they were completely uninterested and we barely had any control over them. It also felt like their teacher wasn’t compelled to keep them on task either because she walked by multiple times when the kids in our group were in the corner goofing-off, and never said anything to them.
- In the end, I did have a good experience with this outreach opportunity. It was actually really nice to go back to a high school for a second, it was like a reality check. It sort of hit me that we were now those “college students” that younger kids looked up to and aspired to be like. Even in such an informal situation like volunteering in a classroom, it was nice to feel like the kids viewed us as educated. I definitely was able to apply my skills of working with other people (and kids especially) because we want them to listen to us but have to acknowledge and work with the things that could’ve been preventing or limiting that. I really liked doing out of the classroom work too, it was nice to apply our learning and share with the high schoolers why, what they’re learning, is significant and important. I realized I do have to be more assertive, like when getting the kids’ attention, instead of just accepting that they were distracted and entering the data ourselves.
- For other outreach opportunities, I think it would be very beneficial if I felt very prepared before going out. If I were to do something like this again, I would use my own time to review the material and really make sure I understand what I am trying to teach them. This experience, although short, taught me about myself because it put us back into a real situation– outside of the classroom. I really enjoyed this outreach opportunity and will apply what I’ve learned from it both in and out of the classroom in the future.
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