Published: January 24, 2008 01:14 pm            

ROCK program rolls into schools | Helps spark interest in the sciences

BY EDWARD P. ZOVINKA

ST. FRANCIS UNIVERSITY CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR

Service learning, a teaching method that intentionally engages a student while also fulfilling a community need, is present all across the St. Francis University curriculum.

The Rural Outreach Chemistry for Kids (ROCK) program, focused on the sciences, is one such program. The mission of ROCK is to provide free, hands-on science activities to local K-12 students in order to spark interest in the sciences.

The service-learning requirement for many St. Francis students mandates that they serve as facilitators for a ROCK event, helping K-12 students complete a science activity.

At first, many of the St. Francis students are nervous, worried about their science knowledge and worried about how to teach the information to younger students. However, once in the classroom, the college students adapt quickly and get involved.

In addition to cementing their chemistry knowledge during a ROCK event, St. Francis students have the opportunity to sharpen their verbal communication skills. This practice is of particular importance to allied health majors, as health-care professionals must often deal with stressed patients.They must quickly put the patients at ease and work to solve health-care issues.

For the science majors, the communication of science topics to a broad audience is an important skill, especially for preservice educators. Lauren Kulak, a senior chemistry/secondary education major from Pittsburgh, has used ROCK to learn more about teaching.

“Being involved with the ROCK program has been a very fun and rewarding experience for me,” she said. “Having the opportunity to teach students about science in an actual classroom has taught me many valuable skills that will be useful to me when I have my own classroom.”

In the K-12 classroom, students are engaged in interactive activities so that they learn important science knowledge while also experiencing the fun and excitement of science. The program is not a magic show; the students must be involved and active.

The experiments depend on the age of the students and topic of interest. Younger students make slime, study light sticks and play with Oobleck, a sticky substance inspired by a Dr. Seuss story. More-advanced students examine the science of disposable diapers and the effects of liquid nitrogen on materials. The experiments are held in small-group settings and directly engage the students in the activity. Each event is hosted by a St. Francis faculty member or trained undergraduate who oversees St. Francis undergraduate service-learning students guiding the K-12 students in the activity.

To coordinate the program, upper-level students are asked to serve as service-learning participants ROCK directors. For the 2007-08 academic year, Kulak and Kimberly Schrock, a junior chemistry major from Beaverdale, are sharing the responsibilities and organizing events. Mike Morealli, an AmeriCorps member, assists the collegians, and all are supervised by chemistry professor Edward P. Zovinka.

ROCK was begun by Zovinka in 1995 with six events. However, during the 2006-07 academic year, the ROCK program hosted 95 events, reaching more than 1,700 K-12 students.

Last year, 120 SFU undergraduates gained service experience with local youth through the ROCK program. This year looks to be just as busy. Since ROCK relies on service-learning participants during the academic year, the main challenge is to meet all requests. To reach as many requests as possible, students are hired in May, when the St. Francis academic year has ended but

K-12 students are still in class. The students “hit the road” just about every day, leading ROCK events all over the Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Bedford and Clearfield counties area that ROCK serves.

        

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