Thanks to a five-year $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, elementary school students in northern Oregon's Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District are taking part in an interactive science outreach program.
Under the program -- known as GK-12 -- UO graduate students from the departments of chemistry and physics spend two weeks per term working in eastern Oregon as "scientists-in-residence." The UO GK-12 fellows partner with classroom teachers to teach science curricula as a process of inquiry, not a collection of facts. Overall, the program is a win-win-win situation: Teachers gain comfort with science content; graduate students develop communication and teaching skills; and kids do cool science.
"The most rewarding part is inspiring the elementary students to learn things on their own, to do experiments around the house, and just be curious -- to try to answer their own questions by doing things themselves," says Bevin Daglen, a recent graduate from the chemistry department who served as a GK-12 fellow for three years.
The UO's GK-12 Program began in 2003, first serving Lane County, and then schools throughout the High Desert Education Service District in central Oregon. Since its inception, the program has served 36 schools in 14 school districts. The recent grant will serve an additional 12 school districts.
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