Thank you so much for volunteering with us! You are already performing two of the most important tasks as a mentor-scientist– sharing your enthusiasm for science with our participants, and showing up consistently.

Below are some additional tips and resources that will help you engage young girls’ minds–to get them thinking while they’re doing, to provide a safe space for them to inquire and explore! Remember, we have to attend to their emotional brain before their intellectual brain will turn on. Please do also realize that girls in your club will be a diverse group displaying aptitude and experience across the continuum of development.

  • These Mentor Scientist Skills were compiled from references and from your contributions during volunteer trainings.
  • The LearningCycle provides a way to think about how the various components of our club–Food for Thought, Hands-on Explorations, and Reflection–fit together.
  • An excellent website explaining How Science Really Works, beyond “question–>hypothesis–>experiment–>results–>conclusion”. The Teacher Resources has information pertaining to different age groups.
  • These are some of the InquirySkills associated with the scientific process that we can expect kids of various ages to become proficient in.
  • Ideas for ending each session with Reflection.
  • To help you pitch at the right cognitive level, this page provides practical advice on the applications of Piagetian cognitive psychology. Nevertheless, more current research published in 2007 (Taking Science to School) suggests that young children are not merely simplistic and concrete thinkers, there is no simple concrete to abstract progression in children’s development, and that given the right context, even young children can engage in sophisticated scientific thinking.
  • You may also find the following one-pagers from the Massachusetts Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Standards for various subject areas related to our curriculum helpful.

Additional Reading