MSMS Students and Faculty Reach Out to Younger Generations
Class of 2015 students Savannah Culver and Jacob Sheward present the wonders of microscope viewing to a cluster of local elementary students at the 2014 Science Carnival.
January 11, 2016
As one of the four MSMS pillars, service is a priority of the students and faculty on campus. MSMS faculty lead their students in outreach programs to give back to Mississippi communities. At MSMS, most outreach programs are done through the Adopt-A-School initiative with Fairview Elementary; meanwhile, other programs are directed through the school’s partnership with the local Boys and Girls Club and through certain academic departments within MSMS.
On Tuesday and Thursday of every week, MSMS students have the opportunity to become mentors or classroom assistants at the local Boys and Girls Club. Volunteers pick which day to go, and from there, they visit their mentees weekly.
Senior mentor Elle McKenzie has participated in the program during both of her years at MSMS. “In the Boys and Girls Club each week, I pick up my three mentees and ask them what they would like to do. Most of the time, they either want to color or run outside. When we go outside, I play different games with and ask them about their day and how they are feeling,” said McKenzie.
“I love being a mentor at the Boys and Girls Club. I will miss it a lot when I leave for college, but I will definitely try to mentor at a new Boys and Girls Club,” she added.
Families view activities at New Hope Middle School’s Family Science Night
At Fairview Elementary, students and faculty assist with school events and provide educational activities for the kids. In November, MSMS volunteers judged the reading fair. Several weeks later on Science Night, seven student volunteers presented science projects on biochemistry; botany; chemistry; earth, space and environmental studies; engineering, computers and math; microbiology and physics. The MSMS students held two sessions of 15 minutes each to present their topics to the children and showed them the basics of a science fair project.
As a follow-up to that science program, there will be a science fair project advice meeting for Fairview students and their parents on Jan. 14 from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on MSMS’s campus. During this event, students will guide the elementary students to an effective science project using scientific method.
Despite the close relationships with the Boys and Girls Club and Fairview Elementary, MSMS organizes programs separate of those two specific organizations. On Oct. 14, MSMS students visited Columbus Middle School to create and maintain math centers for students. The centers were focused on the concepts of relevant mathematics, and the goal was for students to obtain a general understanding of why they learn what they do in class.
Gianni Stennis, an MSMS senior, presenting the “color” station at the Science Carnival.
MSMS mathematics teacher, Lauren Zarandona, will also bring MSMS students to Heritage on Feb. 4 to participate in mathematical games and activities that are intended to give students of Fairview an experience with “real-life” math. The students visited Heritage earlier on Jan. 12.
A large event that MSMS holds annually on the MUW campus is the Science Carnival. Surrounding elementary schools come to see a series of scientific demonstrations, including projects regarding biology, chemistry and physics. Senior Kendall Palmer was a guide for the October 27 event.
“I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the kids light up when in the presence of science,” said Palmer. A smaller version of this carnival occurs in the spring. MSMS will travel to a specific school that did not have the opportunity to visit the original science carnival. The chosen school for the travelling science carnival is voted on each year by MSMS students.
