This semester began with a volunteer training session on September 20th – with 14 volunteers participating; a mix of past and new volunteers.
The slides for the day introduced what the Center for STEM Education is and what we do, talking about broader impacts and the learning goals for STEM field trips. Volunteer expectations, engagement techniques, the process for signing up to volunteer, and required paperwork were covered. In addition, volunteers took part in two activities. For the first activity – catapults – volunteers were tasked to roleplay 4th-8th grade students (our typical field trip demographic) – and to consider that perspective – what is difficult about the activity, what are guiding questions you can ask to help, etc. For the second activity, volunteers did our reverse egg drop activity, but with a twist: materials were not purchased, as usual, but instead provided – a 20-sided dice was rolled and the material provided was determined by the dice roll: the higher the roll, the more useful the material. Therefore, designs were rated not only on their survivability, but instead also on their creativity and aesthetics.
Thank you to all volunteers who attended!
