AFTER SCHOOL GEOSCIENCE ACTIVITIES FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED AFRICAN-AMERICAN 7th AND 8th GRADERS AT THE YMCA IN THE CITY OF HAMILTON, BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO

Providing geoscience experiences for underprivileged African-American children in urban environments is a comparatively rare educational activity. The Hamilton YMCA coordinates with Miami University-Hamilton to provide additional educational experiences for its numerous youth programs. Search Institute’s research indicates that Developmental Assets powerfully influence adolescent behavior—both by protecting young people from risky, problem behaviors and by promoting positive attitudes and choices. The United Way developmental assessment test was given at the YMCA to students; results indicated many students in their program fall short of these developmental guidelines.

Geology lab exercises were selected from the 7^th and 8^th grade USGS education site in hopes of grabbing the attention of the students and gaining their interest in geology as well as building or enhancing developmental assets. A series of visits were made at the Hamilton YMCA in late Fall 2010 and in the Spring of 2011. Duration of the visits were 1 to 1.5 hours. Students were predominantly African- American and 7^th or 8^th grades. Students were “drop ins” and free to leave at any time, there was an average of eight students per visit. Activities during visits included story-telling and descriptions of what geologists do and income they make as well as hands-on exercises to demonstrate wave form using a slinkies, attraction and repulsion of magnets, an introduction to fossils, mineral demonstrations and give-aways, and orange-peel tectonics.

Recommendations include keeping each activity to 10 to 15 minutes in length or less as well as rotation of the staff to reduce familiarity. Often by the third visit there was a general loss of attention by students and having a rotating staff may keep attention focused on new topics. Staff rotation is also time efficient and disperses work load. Hands-on activities are also recommended to keep the students focused. Activities involving food often held the attention of students better than activities not involving food. The project aimed to allow Miami University and the under resourced areas of Hamilton to build a reciprocal connection while encouraging higher scores on the developmental assessment test, geology science education, geology careers and college as a viable means to reach individual potential.