Throughout my years as a student, I have always had the opportunity to learn various aspects of science due to the educational environment I was brought up in, and the school systems which supported my academic growth. But unlike you and I, many kids do not get the chance to learn these things due to the difficulties in their lives, whether that is the economic position of their parents or the work they are forced to do, or the simple unawareness of the benefits that an education can have on one’s future. For one of my CAS experiences, I volunteered with many other students to teach students about science in the form of science projects through community service in school. This occurred on the weekends, for a total of 6 days with 1.5 hours of participation for each instance. During this time, I worked with other students and teachers to help younger, less fortunate students from another school comprehend various scientific concepts through fun experiments including elephant toothpaste, an anemometer, carbon snakes, chemical equilibrium, planes, etc. Oftentimes kids don’t have the resources or facilities to conduct these experiments, so we took it upon ourselves to provide these things to them, not only for their education, but also for their entertainment. It’s just a fact – science experiments are fun!
This CAS experience covered both creativity and service as aspects of my contribution to society in a creative way. In terms of creativity, I was able to work with the kids in order to create various contraptions and fun toys that demonstrated the working of scientific concepts in an innovative way. A wind speed measurer, or anemometer, was made out of cups and straws, while planes were constructed from mount boards. Similarly, each of the experiments was constructed from raw materials, but was also open to creativity from the students. We helped them to create their own paint using glue and food coloring, which was used to create various shades and patterns on the experiments, providing an aspect of uniqueness and belonging to the student who made it. Throughout the time we created a number of different experimental products and reactions which brought smiles to the faces of the kids.
Service was a huge part of the process as well, as others and I had the opportunity to use the knowledge we gained as a part of our education in order to inform the students about the same in a way that they might not have been able to before. Each of the volunteers dedicated a decent amount of time to the planning and execution of these experiments such that they went smoothly for the kids so that they could learn as much as possible in their limited time on our school premises. The outcomes of our service for these kids could be clearly seen in the success that the students had in their experiments, as well as their ability to understand the scientific concepts behind the phenomena they experienced. As I mentioned before, these children do not often get to learn in such a free-flowing environment and are often pressured to take school very seriously even from a young age since their parents would rather have them working with them. Our collective service allowed them to gain liberties they might not have had before and to approach learning from a more enjoyable perspective.
Multiple LOs were catered through this experience for me. LO 1 was fulfilled for me because these kids did not speak English, which put me into a situation where I had to challenge myself to communicate in Hindi and sometimes even Gujarati, helping me to grow and taking me out of my comfort zone. Additionally, LO 5 was definitely a very important part of this process, as I was continuously working with other volunteers in order to properly set up the experiments, teach them, and answer their questions about what was going on. I also engaged with the issue of no quality education (SDG 4), catering to LO 6 as I helped to contribute to the education of these underprivileged students. This went hand-in-hand with LO 7, as I had to consider the ethical impacts of my actions, compelling me to do my best for these kids, even if it made me feel uncomfortable.
This entire experience was highly valuable to me, and I learned a lot through my time volunteering in community service. I learned how to teach and communicate with these kids, as well as how to collaborate with other people for the best outcome. The biggest thing that I learned was that anyone can learn anything if they apply themselves and approach it with an open mind. I had expected these kids to struggle learning the science behind the things that they often see in their daily lives, but they were much brighter than I had originally thought and were able to easily catch on, answering questions and comprehending theories as deep as the conception of the universe.
