Friday, April 4, an atypical sound could be heard from Weissberg Commons, the laughter and the cries of the children. No, the Weissberg Commons did not transform themselves into magic into a playground, but you might say, it was temporarily transformed into a classroom. You see, the sound came from the children of the primary schoolchildren of PS 189 who had come to the Wilf campus to finish a year of learning and pleasure they had in the Science Start program.
Start Science is a YU club that consists of YU groups of students who make weekly visits to primary and intermediary schools from the Washington Heights to conduct scientific experiences. As a rule, a presentation is given on a scientific concept, after which an engaging activity is carried out which demonstrates this concept. For example, children receive a presentation on car accident engineering. After the presentation, they must use these concepts to build a machine that encloses an egg and prevents it from cracking even if it fell ten feet.
To finish the school year of 2024-25, it was decided that instead that Yu volunteers go to school, which is the rest of the year, children would come on us on the Wilf campus. They would carry out some final activities and would be recognized for their work all year round.
As Joshua Romano (YC ’27) reflected: “Flying planes to dissecting verses, there has never been a boring moment. The excitement of the students was contagious, and honestly, I think that we had also fun that they had done. It was the ideal way to finish a year of learning together. ”
For the end -of -year event, I decided to be on the board “Marshmallow Challenge”. The objective of the challenge of marshmallow is to use the principles of physics and engineering to build the highest possible tower using just spaghetti and marshmallows. Stations occupied by other volunteers from Science Start included balloon rockets, verse dissections, mud and paper planes. In addition to the stations led by the students, there was a station led by the Biobus organization. Biobus brought about a dozen microscopes, each of which was pointed out on a different specimen.
When the first group of children arrived, I stood with another volunteer from our station. In the blink of an eye, the table was surrounded by children. The first priority, of course, was to prevent marshmallows from being eaten, which we surprised to do. The second priority was to encourage them to get a building even if they did not fully understand what to do.
Once the first session is over, the children were called to the center of the room to hear a few speeches, receive t-shirts and special certificates for their participation in the program and to take a group photo with Yu volunteers and some of the faculty members.
The speeches were pronounced by Avishye Moskowitz, one of the club presidents, Dean Cypess and the members of the Bickoff family, the donors who help to continue to start science. Although each discourse is certainly unique, there was a common thread: the objective of starting science is not simply to teach the sciences to public schoolchildren in a fun way. Hope is that by showing that science can be fun, we will leave a spark of curiosity and interest in science which could very well last a lifetime.
After the speeches, the first group of children left and a second group entered. Unlike the first group, the second group had a prefabricated spaghetti structure to build, but they also had to cope with certain sections of the structure starting to collapse. As a group of professional engineers would, the weak points have been identified and additional supports have been added. The only difference being that we are dealing with spaghetti, not concrete and steel. In a way, the repair of the structure has taught children that, in terms of engineering, or anything in life elsewhere, if a problem is identified, it must be treated immediately because, over time, the problem will become more and more difficult to solve. Not before long, the second session ended.
Like the first group, the children heard some speeches, obtained their certificates and their special t-shirts and took a group photo. I said one last goodbye to the children with whom I had personally worked last year and to whom I had become quite close. Unfortunately, the time had come to return to school.
The relative silence of Belfer Hall on Friday had returned. Although I now had marshmallows and spaghetti glued to the bottom of my shoe, and there was a lot of cleaning to do, I found myself smiling and even laughing a little. This phenomenon was not unique this Friday. In fact, almost every week, I run an experience in class. I found myself smiling, even if I knew that I would have a substantial quantity of cleaning to do.
After all, there are not exactly other activities that have me as a Yu student who allow me to have fun while knowing your inspiring children simultaneously to love science.
Photo credit: Adena Stevens
Photo legend: YU students and science students