Sup blog!
This is Eva, and I’m sad to admit this is my last blog :(
After arriving in Washington D.C. we taught 3 of our workshops at the District of Columbia Youth Rehabilitation Services Center! We had a blast teaching for the last time, the students were incredibly polite and engaged.
I taught a lesson on genetics through a hands-on activity where students extracted DNA from strawberries. One of my favorite parts of teaching is reaching the end and watching students aww and geek at the booger-like consistency of the DNA and hypothesize what they can do with it. I’m going to miss introducing “lyse,” the term used to describe when a cell pops open, as a homophone for the bugs that crawl into your hair, and jokingly asking students if they think we could use the same sandwich bag method to extract DNA from humans. A fun challenge throughout SPOKES was adapting my workshop to various age groups, from 5-year-olds that had no clue what a cell was to high schoolers with advanced knowledge of mitosis. Also, I discovered that making anything a competition, such as seeing who could extract the most DNA, instantly boosted engagement!
Final Teaching STATS:
11 Learning Festivals in 11 states.
1 College Q & A Panel with Boys Hope and Girls Hope of St. Louis.
700+ students connected with.
Bonding with young minds across America has been truly inspiring. I’m eternally grateful to have been given this opportunity.
I’d like to give a special thank you to all our sponsors who made this trip possible!! And for those who have been avid readers of our blog, thank you for following along!
