Location: McCormick Elementary School
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2015; 10:00 am-12:30 pm
It was “Pi Day", you know, 3/14, and I was supposed to volunteer at ‘Adler Planetarium’. But they didn’t need me and so switched to
this project at the McCormick. I took an ‘Uber’ to the school amidst all the insaneness of ‘St. Patrick’s Day Parade’ in Chicago
and got there to see that all the volunteers had assembled in the
cafeteria. A Chicago Cares staff member
was here and she introduced all the Volunteer leaders for all of the projects.
The leader for all other grades except the 4th exited with their
volunteers leaving Maureen and the Science volunteers behind. Today’s experiments were “M&M Probability”…again; and “Acid Bases”…again!
The kids came in and first task was volunteer
introduction. Maureen asked the kids
what they wanted to know about us and they said, favorite TV shows. Many said things like “Futurama”, “Scooby Doo”
and something called “Face-Off”,
which I remember as being a fantastic movie from my youth. I thought that I should stick to science theme and
so instead of saying “Sherlock” or “Northern Exposure”, I said anything to
do with science or astronomy, for example “Cosmos”. We were ready to begin and I found myself
sitting next to a familiar little girl. Her name was Nima, and I remembered her from
my previous project here. While Maureen
took attendance, she had given everyone “Math
Worksheet” which was identifying the placement of numbers in “tens”,” hundreds” and “thousands”.
I joked that this looked difficult and Nima proclaimed "Not for me". She then proceeded to do the problems in no
time, saying that Math was her favorite subject. Another worksheet was a maze game where we
had to get a ‘Leprechaun’ to a ‘Shamrock’. It took considerable effort
in our part but to her credit, Nima did not give up and we succeeded in getting
the task done. Another game was
identifying some hidden items in a picture and that was indeed difficult. We
were struggling with that when Maureen said that it was time for our first
activity.
We had to split in groups of 3 or 4 students, and a girl named
Jenny joined us and she was just as friendly as Nima. They each had a cup of colored ‘M&Ms’ and had to reach inside and
remove a piece 50 times, note it's color and then put it back. At the end we
would do a probability exercise based on number of times a color had been
picked. I showed them how to do the
tally with hash marks and then they were off.
I was trying to keep track of the number of times they were reaching in
and we had to stop at times to check, but were soon done. We calculated the probability of finding a
color in each cup and then we emptied the cup to count the number of candy
pieces and each color within the group. Both, Nima and Jenny had been fantastic and
while they were grasping the concept, doing fractions was probably a bit
difficult for them. I tried to help out
but it was more important for them to understand the real world applications.
For example Nima was wearing a violet shirt and Jenny a black one. I said that if both of them were in a room and amongst the other kids, there
was another girl wearing a violet shirt and none other wearing black, what color
was I more likely to find. They said violet,
meaning that they had now understood. We
finished answering all questions and then did a graph to capture the colored ‘M&Ms’ in that particular color. We compared both graphs to find out who had
the most likelihood of getting a particular color and only after that I said
to them they could eat their candy. Nima
did not have a brown one but an excess of blue. I asked Jenny if she could share her brown
with Nima and she did. In return Nima
gave her a few blue ones. As we waited, I told them they should keep track of
what their mom was giving them for dinner and then do a probability of what
they could expect in the future. I am not
sure if the mom would like me too much for doing that!
 |
| Cleaning pennies |
Next we took a break and Maureen gave the kids colored
goldfish as a snack. Once again, Nima Jenny
and I discussed color probability and then it was time for next experiment,
which was cleaning pennies. First,
Maureen refreshed the concepts of “Acids
and Bases”, going over a list of various ingredients and asking if they
were an acid or base. Then we got a
glass of vinegar and salt and some dirty pennies, which we had to immerse for 2
minutes. I told the girls to count till
120 while I swirled the liquid. While
chatting I learned that the two girls knew each other as did their families.
Plus they each had siblings, with Jenny having a 10 month old brother as well. Jenny played soccer and it seemed that her
team had even won last year. She wasn't
as good in Math as Nima but she was excellent in spatial recognition, quickly
finding all those hidden objects in the same game where Nima and I had
struggled. Everyone has some strength
though it not always be apparent to others.
I just hope that their teachers recognize these skills.
It was a nice day and so Maureen took the kids outside for
running a lap. It was fantastic to see
the kids enjoy themselves and really reinforced my belief that Maureen is one
of the best Chicago Cares leaders. Back
in the room, our pennies weren’t exactly clean, except one. I asked both of them to use the pennies to
make a wish. Jenny said that she wanted
to be rich and famous while Nima said that she would rather be famous since
that would make her rich. I said not necessarily because there are other famous
people who weren't quite rich. Like mother Teresa, I told them and of course
they had never heard of her.
Maureen showed us an egg that she had made translucent using
vinegar and it looked disgusting, though I guess it was to demonstrate how
powerful an acid could be. She explained
it like a story and how she had told her sister that she would peel an egg
without touching it. She asked us all to
clean our tables because now it was time for one final game. There was a list of non-scientific questions and kids could ask someone else, including volunteers, to help on 2 of them.
At the end whoever had the most correct answers would win. Jenny kept asking me questions, though I said
she could only get help on 2. Many kids got me for being an only child though I
had to turn down many others for "does
not like chocolate". One did
get me for “speaks 3 languages” and "can recite 1-10 in language other
than English and Spanish”.
The game was a lot of fun and one girl with 15 answers won, after which it was time to leave. I said bye
to Jenny and Nima and all the volunteers cleaned up after the kids left. Maureen did her reflection and I mentioned
that the probability calculations may be a bit tough for the kids and it would
help if we referenced it to something in real life. I wish someone had taught me Math like that
rather than just going over calculations and theorems without context. Today however was important in terms of
demonstrating Jenny and Nima’s unique skills, which were quite diverse. Yet, they need to
be nurtured in their own way so that both of them have a successful academic
career.
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