Rocio Chavez: ¡explora! - Blog #2

Hola!

During the second week with ¡explora!, I have been able to go on outreach activities to rural and urban areas in New Mexico. The first outreach activity was to a small town in the Sandia Mountains called Edgewood. We took a “Mini ¡explora!”, were the community was able to build paper rockets, play with bubbles, look through microscopes, and many other things. ¡explora! strongly concentrates on bringing communities together through science and art. On the last outreach, we worked with children from ages 4-6, where they explored the properties of water. The children were so committed to the activity, that they didn’t want us to leave. These preschoolers were extremely intelligent, they would ask questions that you would not expect a 5 year old to say. This demonstrates how exposure to science and art can influence a child think “outside the box”.
In the time that I’m not on outreach, I help the summer camps. I had the opportunity to help the “Cooking with Chemistry” and “Creepy Crawlies” camps; both were for K-1st grade students. In these camps, kids learned about chemical reactions and animal behavior. By the end of week, the parents were thankful and amazed by all the things that their student had learned; including sign language and some words in Spanish. During the camp I interacted with children, but I also helped with set-up and clean-up time. I continue to give group tours, once or twice a day.
After each session I feel more confident and enthusiastic to continue my internship. I have enjoyed every moment of this experience, and again look forward to the next following weeks.

Buena Suerte a Todos,

Rocio Chavez

Outreach Day 2: "Float or Sink"
"Float or Sink"

Outreach Day 3: "Wonderful Water"
"Wonderful Water"
Summer Camp "Creepy Crawlies"
"Creepy Crawlies" 










Group Tour: "Math"

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