MAINE SCHOOL SCIENCE VOLUNTEERS ANNOUNCES NEW OFFICERS

Maine School Science Volunteers, an organization dedicated to expanding Maine High school and Junior High students’ knowledge of science, announces a change in officers and board members:

The president’s position has been replaced by both a President and an Executive Vice President who will share the responsibilities. The new President is Ron Pruzick, a retired electrical engineer who lives in Topsham. The Executive Vice President is Winnie Chan, a retired research bio-chemist who lives in Harpswell. Both have been with MSSV for many years and have a great deal of classroom experience as volunteers as well as administrative experience in their professional careers.

For 13 years MSSV has utilized retired scientists and engineers as volunteers to help teachers educate their students in the classroom and in after school programs. Prior to 2003, the program was an extension of Project RESEED run by Northeastern University in Boston. The Maine organization was founded in 2003 by Edmond R. Pelta, who has been President, and Frank Broadbent, who has been Vice President, since the foundation of the organization. Pelta and Broadbent feel that the organization is fortunate to have some newer volunteers who have superb qualifications for leading the organization into the future.

Board Members:
Ed Pelta and Frank Broadbent will remain as board members. Winnie Chan and Judith Kelly, a retired biophysicist, were added to the board.

MSSV Programs:

MSSV has introduced a number of very successful after-school science programs in addition to their classroom assistance. MSSV will continue to recruit qualified volunteers and seek contacts with schools and teachers interested in these programs.
For more information, please contact info@maine-ssv.org.

During the 2008- 2009 school year, four new MSSV activities were begun at four local schools. These were after-school clubs devoted to various scientific pursuits. The clubs were organized to meet regularly for about 2 hours. Each club was sponsored by a science teacher responsible for all aspects of the club, except for supplying the instructors. The students were expected to arrange their schedule so that they could attend most of the sessions and they were responsible for the small expenses for tools and materials. At each club meeting MSSV tried to have at least two instructors (volunteers) who are qualified in the subject matter being presented.

Students required the recommendation of a science teacher to participate in the club and were expected to devote some additional time to outside study. In addition to having fun, the students and volunteers try to make this a serious academic experience. We think that we achieved both objectives last year. The after school programs consisted of:

1. An electronics club at Brunswick Jr. High School. The program was sponsored by the chairman of the science department, Maria Palopoli. The program will probably resume for 2009-2010 with an almost complete new set of students because of the graduation of most of the last group.

The objective of the Electronics Club was to educate students in the theory and operation of simple electronic devices. This was accomplished by leading the students through the elements of the theory that the students would need to succeed in designing, building, and debugging simple electronic devices that were chosen by the students. The emphasis of the instructor was to teach students to understand each step of the process. Sessions on hands-on skills, such as soldering and electronics fabrication, are alternated with classes on the essential theory. The first project was to build small regulated power supplies that could be used to power students’ projects. The goal of the program was to build and program some simple microprocessor devices.

2. An applied physics club sponsored by Monica Wright at the Bath Middle School. This club attracted a much larger group and included a large percentage of girls. The Bath club will resume at the start of the 2009-2010 school year with a significant number of new students. This club will attempt to include some of last year’s graduates, who will be attending the Bath High School next year. During the course, it was discovered that many of the students had wide-ranging interests in physical science and the instructors allowed, and even encouraged, discussions of peripheral subjects as long as the discussions dealt with the general fields of electronics and applied physics.

3. A science club at Yarmouth Elementary School (Grades 5-7) was sponsored by
Molly Smith, Talents Program Teacher. Over twenty students attended the monthly sessions. This year there are two clubs, each meeting monthly. The first is for incoming students and students who did not participate last year, and it will repeat the most successful units. The second is for students who have completed the first course and will be exposed to new units developed for the slightly older students. Each session featured a presentation by either a volunteer or a school science teacher with a lot of hands-on activities for the students. Presentations included the following: Measurements, Chromatography, Bridge building, Whales, Chemical cleaning of copper, Elementary statistics, and Making silly putty.

New units planned include: boat building, sound waves from musical instruments, and DNA extraction.

4. Science Project Program at Mount Ararat High School, Topsham, sponsored by
Cheri Towle. MSSV volunteers have been involved in helping students with their science projects. The Science Fair projects have been mandatory for all incoming freshmen until 2008.  In the 2008-2009 school year, the program became voluntary, and became an after school activity. Most of the participants in the 2008-2009 program had their projects presented at the State conference in Augusta. We are assisting again in the 2009-2010 year.

Starting an After-School Club at your school:

The number of clubs that MSSV can support is limited by the number of volunteers who are qualified in electronics and applied physics.  We can probably support one more club with the volunteers presently available. Teachers interested in organizing one of these after school activities should contact MSSV at info@maine-ssv.org.