LESSONS LEARNED FROM A YEAR VOLUNTEERING IN AN EARTH SCIENCE CLASSROOM

Volunteering on a long-term basis allows you to have a large impact on the teaching of earth science in the classroom. Students get to be in frequent contact with a real, live scientist and the teacher has someone to turn to for advice, materials, and your professional expertise. As a scientist in the classroom it means learning how to get your point across in only 35-40 minutes seven times a day, that 8th graders don’t always like to show how much they learned or even interest in learning in front of their peers, and, unlike the university, you don’t flunk out the ones who won’t do the work. Volunteering also means to be prepared to answer a request for your services on short notice, or to have to scrap altogether a project you’ve been working on because of outside demands on the classroom time such as student assemblies or shortened school days. To ensure that your materials will be used, give the teacher lesson plans that list the standards that are covered, prepare customized vocabulary building exercises such as word finds and crossword puzzles, share earth science “secrets” such as how to clean streak plates, take the teacher along on field trips to show the local geology, and introduce them to other earth scientists. Other ways to help out include collecting and labeling rock, mineral, and fossil samples, organizing the science supplies, provide a reputable listing of suppliers, and nominate your teacher for an award or bring along to a geology meeting. An important thing to remember is that you might not be there the next year, so write everything down, or put it all on a web page, keeping all your great advice available for use time and time again.

Becoming an effective classroom volunteer is time consuming, a bit frustrating, but also rewarding. How do you know you are doing some good? The teacher will ask you back, the students are glad to see you, and maybe, just maybe, test scores will rise. Finally, the most important lesson to keep in mind is that you are a guest and to treat the teacher and students with respect at all times.