Brooker Community School had an “in-house” field trip when the Science Bus from Gainesville made a visit.
The Science Bus is a converted yellow school bus painted with a mural of Florida scenes. Inside, the seats have been replaced by cabinets running the length of the bus on each side. Demonstration items are placed on the counter-tops for the students to explore.
This is a hands-on experience, and students are encouraged to “touch everything.” With their reluctance set aside, the students readily explored the various exhibits. Science Director Marvin Wilson was impressed with the astute questions from the students. He even commented on how polite and engaged they were.
There is a dissecting microscope for a magnified view of scales on a butterfly wing. A pair of mirror glasses makes handwriting appear upside down. Other demonstration items made sounds or blew “smoke rings.” Coordinated by teacher Stephanie Nash, the students rotated through, grade by grade, to explore the various demonstration items until every student had visited the bus.
At the end of the tour, the students were each allowed to choose a book of interest for themselves. Some were books on various animals, rocks, trees or water. Some were human oriented, such as the book of different types of houses around the world. The NASA calendar was a favorite selection.
The Science Bus is a project of the Cultural Arts Coalition from Gainesville. The bus is part of their after-school science clubs and funded through city and county grants to visit local schools. Since this would be a cross county visit, it needed private funding. So, groups from both Bradford and Alachua counties contributed to the cost as an Earth Day gift.
The collaboration included local groups such as Bradford Environmental Forum and Bradford Soil and Water Conservation District. Regional groups included the Sierra Club and Our Santa Fe River. Individuals Carol Mosley and Michelle Marcotte each contributed their awards from submissions to the Writers Alliance of Gainesville.
Before heading back to the classroom, volunteer host for the day and plant pathologist Paul Still talked to the students about the health of the plants in their newly constructed garden. Teacher Ashley Shelhon is organizing an after-school garden club on Wednesdays. Still is a member of Bradford’s Garden Club and the Bradford Soil and Water Conservation District and hopes to get other members involved to help the school’s garden club be successful.
As an after-visit reflection, the students wrote thank you letters to Wilson. Shaelyn put nine thank yous down the side of the folded card. Inside she says, “Thank you for showing us cool stuff. You are so cool.” From Johanna, “Thank you Mr. Marven (sic) for… being kind and being here at the school and helping me.” Makenna writes, “My favorite part was … Upside down goggles!” And she drew the upside-down goggles.
The older students were more detailed in their descriptions. Josie wrote, “I like how when you learn science you can learn a lot of new stuff like how electricity works or how to make stuff. So, science is really cool, and I love it.” Kevin especially liked the plasma ball and water tornado. He says, “You make me think that science is cooler than it sounds, and it really is.”
If the goal of the Science Bus was to pique an interest in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, then mission accomplished. And it was a lot of fun.
