For my volunteering hours I have been working at the STEM Center’s FAB Fridays. On the first FAB Friday in September I helped out at the microscope station. I didn’t have that much time to spend because I had to go home that night, but I felt like the time was well spent. Something that really surprised me was that a few kids had no idea of how to use a computer. That seemed incredible to me. I grew up around computers because of my dad’s profession and can’t imagine a kid not knowing anything about computers.

I also went to the October FAB Friday and ran a station. Since I work at the STEM Center I have the opportunity to do a lot of behind the scenes set up. Mrs.Gail Gentry let me be in charge of setting up an activity I had found in a folder she had gotten from a conference. The activity was about investigating colours, namely the difference in pigmentation and iridescence. There where three “stations” to the activity.

First, there was a bubble station where kids could see a rainbow of colours in  soap bubble. This activity explained how the difference in colour was due to the different thicknesses of the film. Well, it did in theory at least. A lot more could have been explained if the fact that they were bubbles didn’t make it so distracting. The second station consisted of different types of feathers and water droppers. The idea behind this one was that some feathers (peacock in this case) are iridescent and if you drop water on them, they should change colours. In fact, the normally green peacock feathers turned bright orange in some places. Lastly there was a station that focused on pigmentation and colours of light. I have to admit, I liked tricking the children with the true primary colours of light. It was fun to tell them that what their art teachers had taught them was not true in every case and it was even more fun to see their faces when they saw for themselves.

I also put together two self guided activity boards about the differences in mixtures. The boards consisted of a set of cards showing mixtures (examples include marshmallows, soup mix, and clouds). The game instructions explained the differences between heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures and asked the kids to sort the cards.