Since 2009, Case Western Reserve University fellows have helped hundreds of local K-12 students with their science fair projects. This year, the 32 Gelfand Fellows continue the tradition, working with students at 10 schools across Cleveland to plan, prepare and present their science fair projects.
“There are schools that will not have a science fair if our students aren’t there to assist,” James Bader, executive director of the Leonard Gelfand STEM Center, said.
As a part of the fellows program, undergraduate and graduate students are trained to work with K-12 students, learning tools to help them generate an interesting idea, collect and measure data and assemble a high quality board to showcase their findings.
“The design of each student’s project is completely based on their own interest,” Yiwen Gao, third-year biomedical engineering and religious studies major, said.
This is a step in the process that Bader says is critical. To help students develop an idea they are passionate about, fellows start by asking about their interests. Answers vary—superheroes, music, sports—but from there, fellows help the students build a project centered around what they love.
Gao recalled one 3rd grade student from Superior Elementary School who wanted to know the ingredients that determined the “squishiness” of her favorite toy—slime.
“We helped her specify the details of her project and together figured out some parameters that may make a difference when making her own slime,” Gao said.
Beyond the idea phase, fellows support students as they conduct the experiment and collect data.
“These are foundational skills that students will have to use in all aspects of their education,” Bader said.
As executive director of the Leonard Gelfand STEM Center, Bader oversees multiple programs that support STEM learning for K-12 students, but this one, he said, is the most impactful.
“The fellows can really impact the way these students see science and how they see themselves,” Bader shared. “They [the students] understand this is something they can do even if they don’t see themselves becoming a professional scientist or engineer. It has a lot to do with encouragement.”
After just one year as a fellow, Gao agreed.
“The Gelfand Fellows Program is a great platform that connects Case [Western Reserve] students with local students who have so much curiosity in science and who wish to uplift their own communities in the future by actively participating in STEM research,” she said. “It was such a fun and impactful experience to work with the students and to look at the nature of science through a different lens.”