Public Science Foundation Brings the Lab to Schools
This past year, budget cuts in K-12th grade California schools education has exceeded $5 billion.
As surprising as this sounds, this isn’t new information. With remarkably high financial deficits, educators across the state have trouble providing the necessary knowledge for students to exceed. However not only is this problem prevalent in California, but across the nation.
According to the 2013 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results, the United States placed 36th in its performance in mathematics, reading and science, after the Russian Federation. This proves that there are detrimental consequences to the lack of emphasis on education. To change this fact, The Public Science Foundation, a Sage Hill Service Learning group, decided to initiate a spread of education to local schools in Orange County.
A program to help promote science and learning, The Public Science Foundation was founded by junior Steven Du to create science kits and deliver them to local schools. These kits provide teachers the necessary materials and instructions to learn and teach more lab-based methods of science.
Having students experience hands-on lessons allow them to fully engage in the topic itself. Not only does this project benefit students’ minds, but also presents opportunities to students to further continue these subjects in the future.
“We are working hard to create these kits to positively impact those who have a love for science,” Steven Du explained.
His team, which include juniors Jonathan Haley, Kenneth Park, Jonathan King, Cameron Hamidi and Daniel Liao, is currently working on their first kit, the C. elegans project: a lab designed to “incorporate and demonstrate a number of important Biology concepts, including bacterial plasmid transformation, genetics, and animal behaviors.”
According to the group’s website, their mission is “to [ensure] that all students are provided with a quality learning experience in science-related disciplines,” and hopefully inspire others to continue this endeavor throughout the nation.
For more information:
https://thepublicsciencefoundation.wordpress.com/
http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fr/eb/gbudsum14.asp
