Students clustered around a desk, gasping in wonder at the sight of a pinhole camera isn’t the scene of an elementary science class.
It’s the sight of a group of EC students who are dedicated to teaching science and have received funding to continue in their passion.
Future Elementary Science Teachers is a program that has existed for over three years, but just recently received a $100,000 grant from Northrop Grumman to carry on with its vision.
“Basically, it’s money to continue what we’ve done.” Dr. Judy Kasabian, math professor and co-founder of Science FEST, said.
Science FEST is a program that is dedicated to getting exciting science taught in elementary schools, Dr. Perry Hacking, professor of astronomy and co-founder of Science FEST, said about the program.
This is accomplished by first getting EC students excited about science, helping them develop their own curriculum and then placing them in a classroom setting to teach it.
“You can imagine when a teacher is excited about science how that comes across to the kids,” Hacking said.
This program, which was funded for the first three years by a grant from the National Science Foundation, provides services for students that they can’t get anywhere else.
“If I had never done this program, I never would have had experience in the classroom,” Laura Lizarzaburu, liberal studies major, said.
Science FEST provides classroom experience for future teachers, but it can also provide other opportunities that can be life changing for students who wish to go into a science field. Lizarzaburu, who is a “veteran” of the program, recently was awarded a 10-week internship at the Princeton plasma physics lab.
“The only reason I got that internship was through this program,” she said.
Because they work closely with schools and corporations, many opportunities have arisen for the program and the people involved. Students in the program have been involved with many Northrop Grumman events since the summer of 2003 and have shown the company why they deserve the grant.
“Not only do they like what we do, they know very well what we can do. You’re more likely to get funded that way, because it was a good match from the beginning,” Kasabian said.
For the early stages of the program, Science FEST was funded by a three-year grant from NSF, but, because the program is more defined and established, the program has been able to stop depending on the NSF and has gained corporate sponsorship.
“You couldn’t get a better collaboration,” Kasabian said.
Science FEST meets Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Chemistry 101 and is open to all EC students.
