The Science Project Complete!

    In August of last year I blogged about the Science Project, a project fellow PCV Evan Cobb and I came up with.  The purpose of the Science Project is to bring science experiments and science education to classrooms throughout Cambodia who do not have the resources or wherewithal to obtain it.  While Evan slaved away fixing up the lab all shiny and new for the kids and science teachers, I worked on the putting the book together with PCV Rich Durnan, and expert on the computer.

The room before and during renovation.

Our science book! Woooo!

I am so happy and proud to say that our little Science Project is a huge success.

    How can I make such claims? Well, a few months ago I traveled to Evan's site to pilot the class for the kids. They were super excited, he told me.  After a snafu or two, I arrived at his site and his school to find that the entire first class was waiting for me and ready to perform experiments.  An added bonus? The science teachers from his school were also ready.  They were sitting in the room with the kids wanting to hear what I had to say, and to observe these experiments we had spoken so often about.

    I had made a few posters the night before so we hung them on the walls and got down to business.  Since I was only able to see two classes (the 12th graders), Evan and I decided to try and tackle three separate subjects/experiments, each at about 20 minutes long allowing for a short explanation and questions at the end.  The first experiment we did was a rocket on (a la volcano) involving the use of, you guessed it, baking soda and vinegar.  I wrote the chemical reaction on the board and attempted to draw the chemicals by way of a short explanation.  A great part of this story is that the chemistry teacher came over and corrected my drawing.  I was ecstatic.  "Please," I said to him in Khmer, "continue."  The purpose of this project wasn't for me to teach the kids, it was for Evan and me to introduce them to the subjects and for the teachers and students themselves to take over and use it at their own pleasure.  But he wasn't interested, he wanted to see what I had to offer.

    Usually this experiment is done with a film canister (at least that's the way I did it, way back when), but those are difficult to find in Cambodia (and the rest of the world...thank you digital cameras) so we were flexible with a medicine bottle that had a snap-off lid (for a good how-to of the experiment, see here).  I showed the kids how to do it once, by wetting baking soda, padding it into the top, and filling the canister with vinegar.  Then I capped the bottle, turned it over, and stepped back expectantly.  There was a small hiccup and a fizz - I had filled the vinegar with the wrong amount of vinegar, and after cleaning the materials up, stepped back for the kids to have a try.  See below:

And they trial-and-error-ed it until the last one we had time for, when the bottle flew up like a rocket! Reactions were perfect and I think I literally clapped my hands together in excitement.  But no time to dwell, the 20 minutes were up!

   For the next science exposure, Evan and I chose to use a microscope and show the kids mitosis.  I tried to give them a brief overview of what they were going to see but mitosis is pretty complicated to explain in a short period of time via a foreign language.  So using the posters I had made the night before, I showed them the stages and we set the microscope up.  They "ooh'd" and "ahhh'd" and once more: success.

   The third experiment involved two glass bottles that were the same size but one was filled with water and the other empty.  They were set up on a ramp made of books and the students guessed which would roll faster and farther.  Behind the experiment we told them a little bit about friction and why the bottles traveled like they did.

   Thus ended our first class and we were pretty happy that it went well.  The second class was even better because the science teachers ended up practically taking over! Incredible to see, and happy that my work in that classroom was basically done.  Not only that, but after the class, a few of the students came up to me to ask about getting more information on studying science! If that doesn't signal success, I'm not sure what does.

   We have passed the books to other Volunteers and last week Evan traveled to the site of another Volunteer in order to give a presentation.  Spread the science around, I say.

Now onto the next province.

xo
Amanda

*all photos were taking by Evan Cobb

**check out our project featured on the Peace Corps Cambodia Webpage.

***or here on Facebook!

****to any other PCV who wants to check out the book and *!*use it at their school*!*, contact me for a pdf.  Spread it around!

Top: Evan with the students

Bottom: Me with the other class