Students at South Junior High School are getting a chance to get hands on with science and technology this week on the Husky Express with students and professors sharing lessons.
Physics Education student Dane Larson helped professors Dr. Rachel Humphries and Dr. Ramya Sivaraj deliver a lesson on magnetism and circuits Tuesday while middle schoolers spent some after school time getting hands on experience.
Dr. Felicia Leammukda, Dr. Rachel Humphries and Dr. Ramya Sivaraj are turning the Husky Express into a mobile teaching lab to make those experiences a field experience for their science education majors where students help to operate the lab and work with the children to present lessons.
“The idea of science being something that is enjoyable and scientific concepts being accessible to all students is just so valuable, especially as students in elementary grades are continuing to build their identities and work out what schooling and learning is all about,” Sivaraj said. “For our education majors, this kind of out of the classroom experience is a great reminder that science can be approached from a student-centered and inquiry-driven lens and that as future science teachers they can seek out collaborations in formal and informal spaces.”
The educators have taken to elementary schools throughout the state, and this week are assisting with the 21st Century Learning Centers this at South. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers are central Minnesota educational spaces where students have an opportunity to learn outside of the traditional school day through a federal grant from the Department of Education, administered through United Way Partner for Student Success.
The professors saw the grant as an opportunity as a chance to give their education students experience in working with children during their first years of their program and to give the children a chance to get hands on learning in concepts that they aren’t always able to explore in the classroom.
“My student was able to have a kind of field experience,” Leammukda said. “They get to work with students in an out of school experience. They get to teach their own lesson that they developed. They need that experience before they go out and actually teach or do their student teaching experience.”
The aim of the 21st Century Learning Center grant is to meet the needs of the whole child, including family needs, through a well-rounded academic and social-emotional programming through supporting programs in locations that are accessible and will include after school, evening, weekend and summer programming to meet the needs of students and families.
St. Cloud State University has been working with the 21st Century Learning Center project since 2020 when students first developed math activity backpacks that children could take home to do with their parents when schools were closed during the pandemic. They continuing to support the program with in-person activities on the Husky Express as well as the creation of mathematics and science kits.
