Last Friday, March 7th, first graders from Mills and Clayton Elementary flooded the Bowie hallways and science department classrooms to participate in the school’s annual Science Day event. On this day, high school students volunteered to teach and guide first graders through science experiments.
According to Advanced Science teacher Erin Kowalik, Science Day has been a tradition at Bowie since the 1990s, when she was a Bulldawg student. Kowalik feels that having previously participated in Science Day while in high school made watching her students step up to volunteer, organize, and run experiments a special moment for her.
“I love seeing my students engage with the first graders and take ownership of the activities,” Kowalik said. “I get to see them in a whole new way, I can hear them refining the way they connect with the students and honing the way they present the activity as the day goes on.”
High school students like junior Caroline Loewe and senior Kelly Craft took on the role of teachers as they guided first graders through different science experiments. Craft stated that she conducted experiments involving optical illusions and texture. According to Craft, she connected to the kids while performing these experiments, which involved illusions where kids had to differentiate if the image was a rabbit or a duck.
”I just loved talking to the kids and seeing what their favorite things to do in first grade are, and most of them said math,” Craft said. “I just really loved seeing the future generation; they’re going to be us one day, and I thought they’re just like us but small.”
Across the room, Loewe stated that she taught first graders about the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. She explained how she mixed baking soda and vinegar, a solid and a liquid, to provoke the chemical reaction of gas production. According to Loewe, this provided an engaging response from the kids as they would all provide their predictions of what would happen if you mixed baking soda and vinegar.
“Every year we’ve done this has been so amazing, and the students are so excited to come to Bowie because some of them will come here when they go to high school,” first-grade teacher at Clayton Elementary Marueen Pandola said. “And getting that hands-on experience on science day helps them be more and more excited to learn in my class.”
Pandola, as well as other teachers, have expressed their gratitude for Science Day. As Pandola has stated, they appreciate that their students were able to participate in the hands-on experiments that occurred during the day. Whether it was through bubbles, balloon races, or even brain dissections, first graders got to experience fun and engaging science activities during Bowie Science Day that will help them in their classroom.
