UNL Students Staff Science Club for McPhee Elementary

Learning about the effects of lever length are, from left, Simon, Torsten, Dasha, and Cassie, at McPhee School’s Science Club, organized and staffed by students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources.

Simon enjoys learning about levers in Science Club at McPhee School.

Tahirah experiences a lever first-hand during Science Club at McPhee School.

LINCOLN, Neb. -- What do medieval catapults, people’s arms, seesaws, spoons, and hammers all have in common? They’re all examples of levers, and students at McPhee Elementary School used them to move objects, including each other, at a recent meeting of the after-school Science Club.

Eight of McPhee’s 20 budding scientists spent a fast hour learning about leverage, torque, and which way to turn screws, with planned activities, supervision, and materials provided that day by six graduate students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s School of Natural Resources (SNR).

"One of the most rewarding aspects is when the kids get to know your name,” said John Quinn, SNR grad student, one of the main organizers of the ongoing volunteer activity. Quinn, co-organizer Ariana Jones, and other students spend up to 100 hours a semester preparing and teaching lessons for the McPhee Science Club. A total of 20 students from SNR take turns volunteering at McPhee, at Goodhue Boulevard and G Street.

McPhee Principal Bess Scott said the collaboration would improve her students’ chances for success in later life. Science Club, with its hands-on lessons, helps build the language of higher-level thinking, and related skills such as inferring, hypothesizing and predicting. “That’s the language of success,” Scott said, “and that’s powerful.”

The student volunteers are good role models, too. “Having college students who are excited about natural sciences, sharing their enthusiasm with children, who then get excited and enthused about natural sciences,” is a plus, Scott said. “They don’t look at them as full-grown adult teachers. They look at them as fellow students.”

The connection with McPhee came about in part because Jim Brandle, professor of Forestry and one of the advisors of the SNR Graduate Student Association (GSA), is married to Carolyn Brandle, one of the teachers at the school. He hears first-hand about some of the challenges faced by the school’s dedicated staff, which serves many students and families who are working to overcome substantial obstacles to security and well-being.

Eighty-eight percent of McPhee families live at or below the federal poverty level, based on eligibility for free and reduced school lunches, Scott said. The school has a 40% mobility rate – the change in students between the first and last day of the school year.

This is the SNR GSA’s third year working at McPhee Elementary. In the fall, the organization worked with McPhee’s Community Learning Center to provide science education one day a week after school, and at least once during the semester for each grade level and each classroom.

Quinn said that although he will eventually complete his degree and move on, he and others are working now to lay the groundwork so that lessons and materials are clearly planned for other volunteers in the future.
The SNR students have covered a range of science-related topics with the McPhee students, including biodiversity, food, seeds and plant life cycles, our changing planet, and simple machines. Earthquake-simulating machines were also a hit. “We did a can crusher, which they thought was great,” Brandle said. "Another time we brought in a whole bunch of different seeds and flowers.”

Scott was optimistic that the seeds of curiosity planted through Science Club would bear fruit in student achievement. “We believe all our kids can and should graduate from high school and college,” Scott said. “We tell them, ‘It’s hard work, but it’s worth the hard work. It’s not going to be easy. Smart isn’t something you are. It’s something you get through hard work.’”

Sources:

• Dr. Jim Brandle, Professor of Forestry, School of Natural Resources, jbrandle1@unl.edu, 472-6626
• John Quinn, Graduate Student in Forestry, School of Natural Resources, jquinn2@unlnotes.unl.edu
• Bess Scott, Principal, McPhee Elementary School, bscott@lps.org

Writer:

• Kelly Helm Smith, Communications, School of Natural Resources, ksmith2@unl.edu, 472-3373