Our volunteers had so much fun participating in our first Science Night at Echo Lake Elementary, a K-5 school in Shoreline, Washington. Echo Lake students were given the opportunity to participate in numerous unique and engaging STEM-related activities led by multiple local organizations, including HuSCI.
We recruited a diverse group of scientists from the University of Washington and affiliated associations to design and our activities. We welcomed interest from an overwhelming amount of enthusiastic scientists, of which 13 attended the science night, including two committee members. Our volunteers attended in-person training sessions before the event to get familiar with the activities, practice demonstrating them, and rehearse communicating scientific ideas to a younger audience.
HuSCI set up two booths with three activities: proprioception, paper chromatography, and microscopy. For proprioception, we used objects of different textures to demonstrate to kids how the human body senses touch with varying sensitives. Using paper and colored ink, we practiced paper chromatography, allowing the kids to express their inner artists. For our microscopy activity, which drew the most attention, we had two microscopes and several different slides for kids to look at and draw what they observed. HuSCI provided worksheets so the kids were able to take their drawings home and remember this fun night of science activities!
We are proud to have participated and shared our love of science with the next generation of curious minds. We loved meeting the students at Echo Lake and hope that we have inspired some young scientists.
Thank you to all the volunteers and the amazing staff at Echo Lake who dedicated their time and efforts!