Many schools have chosen to become virtual due to the pandemic. Because of this, students are missing out on the hands-on science experience. As an elementary schooler, many of my interests stemmed from the experiments I did in class, and due to the pandemic, so many students don't have this opportunity.
I put together Leaf Chromatography kits for a 3rd-grade class in the elementary school I attended. Students will have the opportunity to pick up experiment kits during a one-week window and the following week, they will join a Zoom Call (scheduled for April 10) where I will walk them through the experiment. Once this is done, I will be reaching out to local libraries and assemble kits, and host such events throughout the summer. The experiments will be modified then to fit certain age groups.
The project went really well! I was able to distribute over 150 kits to students around my vicinity and received a lot of positive feedback in the forms I sent out to participants.
This project definitely strengthened my networking skills as I had to reach out to many individuals, explain the project, and show them how the project could be beneficial to students. Furthermore, the entire process of creating an experiment plan, translating that into a brochure format, connecting with librarians, teachers, etc. and distributing the kits allowed me to become a better project planner - from coming up with the idea on my own to executing it, I got experience with every stage of doing a community project and learned very valuable skills such as how to make the best use of my resources, explain educational concepts, and effectively reach students in my community.
I hope to record videos going through the different experiment kits that I could upload to social media/make a website of my own- up until now, I've presented to Zoom and had many students completely do it on their own by just using the instructional brochure. Since I can manufacture n number of kits and deliver them to schools, libraries, etc. some kids have not been able to get a kit because they've run out. To eliminate this issue, I want to upload videos going through the experimental procedure - I've designed the experimental plans in such a way that they can be done with easily accessible materials - that way those unable to get a kit and obtain the materials from their home/elsewhere and then do the experiment. Furthermore, I'm also considering creating a form where students can request kits and I can ship it out to them - for this, I'd need to fundraise a little bit until I could fully proceed.
One of my favorite parts was the first session I held on Zoom - any parents got back to me and told me that it was a really fun experience for the kids and they loved how their kids got to do hands-on science from the comfort of their homes during the pandemic - it gave me a lot of hope to keep pursuing this project. Another part that also made me super happy was when I dropped off 50 kits at a library on a Friday and all of them had been picked up by Monday morning :)
1. Canva is amazing when it comes to creating posters, brochures, etc. 2. One thing that was really helpful for me was that I had a document made listing the materials, goal, audience, etc. for my project (basically structured like a project proposal) I would send that to places like libraries where I wanted to deliver kits to. This would help the person I contacted have a better idea of the idea project before I joined a Zoom Meeting with them to plan further logistics. It was also helpful in showing that I knew what I was doing and was serious about the project.
