Process Paper

In the beginning of senior year I was still very unsure of what I wanted to do for my senior capstone. I had considered a mural or something of that nature because of my passion of art, however, I was torn between art and science. I felt that it would be beneficial to explore something pertaining to science, since that is what I would be studying in college, but I was having a hard time finalizing an idea. Luckily, Stephanie Dunda, a teacher that has helped me to indulge in my interest in the sciences in the past, came to me and offered to connect me to an organization called Palms Solutions that was looking for a volunteer to introduce a science program to their after school program TIMBA. 


I took the opportunity and met with both the founder of TIMBA, Jean Marie, and his wife Dr.Mecky. Jean Marie explained that in addition to being a volunteer tutor for his program that I would possibly have several other responsibilities. These responsibilities would include starting a blog on the TIMBA website where other volunteers would be able to talk about their experiences at TIMBA and introducing the kids to some science based experiments while incorporating the math that was being reviewed in the tutoring sessions. I gladly accepted the offer and began my internship with enthusiasm. 


I was paired with another tutor/teacher and we worked together tutoring the children in our small classroom. I worked closely with the children, getting to know them personally and learning their math levels. I began designing a project that could work with what I had learned about them and tat could work around the time frame that I was given. I researched and surveyed the kids about what they wanted to do. Ultimately, I decided to help the kids perform the very classic volcano experiment, with a little twist. I was going to use fractions, the math the children had been working on, to exemplify how math is important in a real life and fun way. The goal was to use different fractions of baking soda and vinegar and see which pairing of fractions gave the best fizz. However, through some conflicting opinions the experiment that was performed in the end was a petri dish experiment. This experiment was meant to also show the kids the importance of fractions, by allowing them to count the colonies of bacteria, as well as teach them a few things about antibiotics, bacteria, and scientists. Once again, do to timing complications this experiment was not performed fully or as throughly as I would have liked. 


Overall, the experience taught me a few things about working with different people and working in different environment. I learned a lot about time management, when third parties are involved, and working with children. 


Meetings 

Jean Marie 

10/11/12

10/18/12

10/25/12

11/1/12

11/8/12

11/15/12

11/29/12

12/6/12

12/13/12

12/20/12

1/3/13

1/10/13

1/17/13

1/24/13

1/31/13

1/7/13

1/14/13

1/21/13

1/28/13

2/7/13

2/14/13

2/21/13

2/28/13

3/4/13

3/11/13

3/18/13

3/25/13

4/2/13


Dunda 

10/3/12

10/17/12

10/31/12

11/14/12

11/28/12

12/12/12

1/9/13

1/23/13

2/6/13

2/20/13

3/6/13

3/20/13

4/24/13

5/22/13

Comments