Pulled into Urbana yesterday evening – had a delicious dinner with my family, and enjoyed a much needed full night of sleep in my old bedroom. We’ve received the warmest hospitality we could hope for all along our trip, but of course it feels wonderful to be home.
Yesterday we spent the day at Cold Spring School, a K-8 Indianapolis public school and we tried something we hadn’t tried before - we were visited by two 8th grade, 7th grade, and 6th grade classes, and we taught a different curriculum module to each grade level. I know – wild and crazy! We explored temperature with the 8th graders, cell biology with the 7th grade, and used Daphnia to study ecology with the 6th grade students. We managed the different lessons well, and I think Ric and I are really hitting our stride teaching on the BioBus. We were joined throughout the day by pre-service science teachers from Butler College as well as observers from our hosts at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and it was nice to have their feedback.
The highlight of this day came from Ben Palicki, the Cold Spring teacher who organized our visit. After one of his classes finished the temperature curriculum, he was hopping up and down with excitement! “I can teach the students theory out of books, but when they actually see what’s happening on the microscope, they just get it.” This is exactly what we hope to do – help reinforce what teachers are doing in their classroom by providing hands-on demonstrations of concepts. Success!
After-school, our wonderful hosts from the Indianapolis Museum of Art brought us back to the museum, where we had a really nice discussion about how to integrate the BioBus into the new 100-acre nature park they are developing. We also discussed interesting new ways to integrate art and science on the BioBus, for instance making connections between the important role light plays in both painting and microscopy. It seems that every place we visit we make more and stronger connections, and I am sure the BioBus will be back to the mid-west, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Heading off now to the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum to work with the Girls Do Science Club and then open up to the public. It is a great feeling to be back home, with a chance to give back to the community that helped make me who I am – the best homecoming I could ask for.
Signing Off, Ben