Call To Action Day

Call To Action Day 3/25/15

Since I transferred here, this is my first time being a part of Call To Action Day. I started off my day by picking up my awesome t-shirt and heading over to Green Hills Elementary for my Science in Action class. Every week on Thursdays, my partner and I do experiments with a special ed class and it is so much fun to see how excited these kids get when they see us come teach them a lesson because they barely get that much hands on science in their classrooms. This week we did an experiment with dry ice that went really well and then we came back to NDNU for my second part of the day where the 8^th graders from Notre Dame Elementary come here on our campus for an hour for science. We had about 27 eighth graders from next door and on this special day they get an opportunity to be scientists and actually work in our science labs which they do not have available to them at their own school. This project is also ran by the Science in Action class here and basically we set up three different experiments in three different science labs and had the teacher break them up into three groups so there would be three different rotations. The three experiments they get to try are called: Flame test, Egg in a jar, and a dry ice shooter. The flame test they get to use a Bunsen burner and test a number of chemical elements to see what color each element gives off when heated. For the egg in a jar experiment, you get to remove oxygen from a jar and watch the jar act as a vacuum and observe the hardboiled egg getting sucked into the jar. The last experiment was the dry ice experiment and you get to teach them about sublimation in forms of different mediums. We had actual Science in action class members working each station as well as a few non-science in action students participate for their work for call to action day. I mainly worked at the flame test experiment and it was really fun because we had the kids fill out a table and predict what color they thought they were going to see. The kids definitely were excited and shocked to see all the bright, cool looking colors that elements can give off because they had no idea. Most of them thought because we can’t always see elements around us that some would not give off any colors. Even though I teach a class a new experiment every week over at Green Hills, I definitely enjoyed being able to use the labs here and teach the NDE students more than they already knew. I wish we could do more days like this throughout the year instead of just one day. It’s nice to give back or give your time to people just because you want to and not just because your teacher or coach is making you for credit etc. You also got to learn more about the hallmarks of the sisters just like how number three was stated on the back of our shirts today. I heard a lot good things from other friends who did clean ups and went to other sites as well. This day also gave you a chance to interact more with other people from our school that you maybe normally don’t know well or talk to. It’s nice seeing everyone get involved and happy to do something for a good cause and I look forward to seeing what activity I get involved with for next year. One small act of kindness or piece of your time can really make someone’s day or change the world in many ways without us even knowing it and you never know who is watching so you just may be leading a good example for someone else.