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Credit: Nick Romanenko
Rutgers Science Explorer is a
custom-built bus designed to bring
demonstrations and interactive science
activities to New Jersey’s sixth-,
seventh- and eighth-graders.
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Rutgers has wrapped science in a shiny new package, 40 feet long and 16 months in the making. The Rutgers Science Explorer owes its existence to the enthusiasm and zeal of Kathleen Scott, director of the Math and Science Learning Center. Her passion for science and her deep desire to share its excitement is now manifested in this laboratory on wheels.
“We were looking for a way to extend the reach of the center and the university out into the community,” said Scott, a professor in Rutgers’ department of cell biology and neuroscience in New Brunswick/Piscataway. “We thought that it would be really nice to take the kinds of hands-on science young students experience at the center and bring it out to the schools.”
The Rutgers Science Explorer is a custom-built bus designed to bring demonstrations and interactive science activities to New Jersey’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Right now, students can engage in activities dealing with gold panning, electricity generation and transmission, batteries and volcanoes. More projects are on the way.
A donation from the Edison Venture Fund, a leading investor in mid-Atlantic information technology companies, provided the initial financial support for the Science Explorer program. OBS Inc., an Ohio-based custom designer and builder of high-quality specialty vehicles, collaborated with center staff to design the mobile laboratory.
The new Blue Bird bus can handle up to 20 students at a time, their teacher and Rutgers staff. Lab benches line the interior, providing workspace for the young potential scientists. It is a digital delight with a 10-station networked computer system provided by Rutgers’ Center for the Advancement of Teaching. Internet access comes in via a retractable roof-mounted satellite dish.
Digital video projection equipment and microwave and refrigeration units top off this traveling classroom, presenting an attractive, cost-effective approach to science education for school districts on tight budgets. On a typical day’s visit, three to four groups of 20 students will each have the opportunity to participate in one 90-minute activity session.
“In the elementary schools, student interest is stimulated by a lot of hands-on science, but by the time they get to high school, many seem to have lost interest,” said Sue Coletta, a Rutgers science education specialist at the Waksman Institute. “Middle school is a transition time for students and it offers us a window of opportunity to reawaken their lost inspiration and generate continued interest in science, engineering and math with intervention strategies like the Rutgers Science Explorer program.”
This rolling lab can travel to middle schools up to three days per week, with two days reserved for maintenance and activity setup. The program targets schools within 50 to 60 miles of Rutgers, but interested schools more distant from the university will be considered. Middle school teachers and administrators who would like the Rutgers Science Explorer to visit their school can apply online at sciencebus.rutgers.edu.
Program staff will respond with program specifics and potential dates and times.
The Rutgers Science Explorer is integrated with Rutgers’ Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program, funded by the National Science Foundation. The GK-12 program places advanced graduate and undergraduate students in working partnerships with middle school teachers in the classrooms, where the fellows can help teach and generate interest in the sciences.
“We partner them with expert middle school teachers,” Scott said. “The fellows bring the teachers new science and math content along with new activities; the teachers, in turn, help the fellows learn how to teach middle school students.”
Rutgers has eight graduate GK-12 fellows and three undergraduates working with the Science Explorer program. They staff the bus, develop and conduct demonstrations, and lead activities for the middle school students. Knowledgeable, approachable and enthusiastic, these fellows serve as excellent role models for the middle school students, Scott said.
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