Youth Innovation Club is now
E3 Learning Partners
Science Project Advisors Program 2019-2020
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Youth Innovation Club collaborated with Santa Barbara Partners in Education to bring the Science Project Advisers Program to local junior high schools. We worked closely with science teachers to ensure students working on science fair projects had the opportunity to meet with scientists on campus, or submit questions online.
A teacher's letter to volunteers
Dear Science Project Advisers,
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I hope this message finds you well! On behalf of our SBJHS students and the science department, I would like to thank you very much for your time, feedback, and patience with our science club members and their projects. Aly and Elle literally had a blast designing and launching their rocket as a team, they were proud of their results and had planned to arrange more launches. Andy enjoyed testing his subjects with motor skill exercises, while Chuck got quite deep trying to cull correlations between personality types and extracurricular activities of her peers. It was fascinating to watch her realize and work through the many subtle variables when analyzing human behavior data. Peter and James worked hard to collect data for their earthquake experiment and solidified as a team towards the deadline to create a nice presentation board. Alice loved her bacteria and light project – she took it home, brought her mom to my classroom and never missed a chance to talk about her observations! And finally, Alex thoroughly had fun with his rocket project. Through his pictures, I saw that his family was involved as well with the launches. Alex impressed me with his problem-solving solutions to help improve the rocket launch and to measure the height of the rocket flight.
As you may have heard, our culminating district science fair was postponed at the eleventh hour due to the closure of UCSB and there was much confusion afterwards of whether the event was delayed or completely canceled. To compound the difficulties, our school went to distance learning the following week and I have not seen any of the students in person since.
However, the students were all successful in finishing their projects in various degrees and all had positive experiences and memories due to your consistent presence and feedback. I truly appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule to share your knowledge, model problem solving and encourage our students.
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Thank you again,
Marilyn Garza
SBJHS
For privacy purpose, all student names were modified.
What students said
"I really appreciated your help a lot. I can do other things and because of you I know what I want to be when I grow up. Just like you and me, there aren’t enough women in the biology field. You are an inspiration and I want to do a career such as a marine biologist. "
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"The most helpful things about having a science project mentor is that they can guide you step by step on what to do and they give you very useful advice that can help you make you a ton."
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“My mentor pointed me to certain parts which after some research helped me develop my design.”
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“Our mentor was very helpful in that she brought to our attention many details of the project that we were not aware of. She taught us many factors that are hidden but play a big role in a good science project.”
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“They can really explain all of the problems I have in my project. After I explain what I have done, they give me better solutions.”
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