Taking science outdoors
SAN JOSE — Simulating the forces behind earthquakes, 21 fourth graders flattened balls of clay onto cardboard, then simultaneously gripped the clay and yanked apart the boards, representing the Earth’s diverging tectonic plates.
It was a challenging manipulation for small hands, with predictable results.
The exercise was part of a recent morning of hands-on lessons at the Youth Science Institute at Alum Rock Park. Teacher Donna Hamane’s students from Alviso’s George Mayne Elementary also created a S’mores-like representation of the Earth’s core and mantle, involving candy, marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker crumbs. They hiked past the park’s sulfurous hot springs and were thrilled by a cameo appearance of a nonchalant family of deer.
It’s the kind of experiences that transfix students, inspire teachers and feed everyone’s curiosity.
“We got to actually see the stuff in real life and not just in pictures,” said Kaya Whitesell, 9, about her class’s trip.
“I’ve never seen a deer before,” said classmate Jeffrey Lee, 9, who loved being outdoors. “Looking at plants and animals was really cool.”
Heading into its 65th year, Youth Science Institute hosts field trips and summer camps for kids from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and runs nature centers at Alum Rock and Vasona parks. The institute also takes its menagerie of reptiles, insects and mammals to visit schools.
“We found through studies within Santa Clara County that teachers don’t spend a lot of time with science in classroom,” said YSI Executive Director Erika Buck. The institute has 30 full- and parttime staffers, and over a year’s time about 200 youth and adult volunteers.
YSI provides a limited number of its field trips for free, to schools like George Mayne with high numbers of children from poor families — roughly one-third of the public schools in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
At Ben Painter Elementary in San Jose, fifth-grade teacher Cynthia Mykkanen makes sure to apply early for the YSI field trip grants. Painter, where 89 percent of children live in poverty, has no PTA.
“We don’t have the funds, and definitely our students’ families don’t have funds to go on field trips,” Mykkanen said. Her students attended a YSI program on Ohlone living. Kids made tule ropes, ground acorns, washed their hands with soaproot and sampled Ohlone cuisine.
“It really brings home our social studies content, how geography and environment shaped Native American lives,” Mykkanen said.
Beyond the science projects, excursions broaden kids’ world. For most of Mykkanen’s students, the YSI field trip is their first visit to Alum Rock Park, just four miles from their school in the Alum Rock Union School District.