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Three members of first-year seminar course offer lessons in forensics, genetics and neuroscience at downtown alternative school
BY ANDREW VOWLES
Bored with regular classes, Daniel Kelly dropped out of his Guelph high school three years in a row. But in a pilot alternative school opened downtown this year for homeless and at-risk teens, the 17-year-old found plenty to hold his attention during three-hour sessions on genetics, forensics and neuroscience run by three U of G students.
“They were pretty cool,” says Kelly, referring to the outreach sessions developed and offered by the students in a first-year University seminar course. Learning about genetics for the first time was especially enlightening for the teen, now studying university-stream chemistry among his current Grade 10 and 11 courses. “I want to go on to university for biology.”
Sharing their own passion for science was the goal for the U of G students, who took their knowledge and a handful of unconventional props, including Elmo dolls, to streetwise students at the school.
“Our job was to create wonder,” says first-year general studies student Vanessa Warren. “We all ended up on the same page, we all showed the same sense of wonder.”
Although they didn't expect to perform any life-changing miracles, the undergraduates — all enrolled in a first-year seminar course led by College of Biological Science dean Mike Emes — hope their recent lessons have sparked an interest for learning among their teenaged counterparts.
Those young students attend an alternative school under a pilot program called Give Yourself Credit (GYC), offered this year by the Upper Grand District School Board and community agencies. About 15 students ranging in age from 16 to 19 are enrolled in the school, held at Chalmers Street United Church. (Similar schools operate in Toronto and Hamilton.)
Arthur Churchyard, a first-year arts and science student, says he initially felt nervous about working with the GYC teens. They were all dropouts from regular high school, and many had had run-ins with the police and experiences with alcohol, drugs and violence. Some students were parents themselves, including a 17-year-old who gave birth this spring to her third child.
Still, he welcomed the challenge to work with two classmates to turn their science studies into engaging lessons for the school.
Warren, Churchyard and first- year biomedical sciences student Debi Banerjee took on the project as a group assignment in their seminar course called “The Art of Communicating Science.”
They soon learned one key lesson for any communicator, let alone a science communicator: know your audience. They had planned to run a session on the environment but dropped the idea after GYC teacher Roberta Kraven suggested they find more pertinent topics for their listeners.
“They have so many issues in their own lives,” says Kraven, a teacher at College Heights Secondary School.
Warren led off with neuroscience by discussing how drugs affect the brain. The 32-year-old drew on her instructional experience, including teaching English-as-a-second-language in South Korea and horseback riding at her Oakville stables.
“I knew some of the tricks,” says Warren, who returned to school last fall planning to apply to Guelph's veterinary program.
Churchyard used teen pregnancy as a hook for a session on genetics and genetic testing. His direct experience in explaining science to general audiences includes his work with the SPARK program run by the Office of Research, which enlists student writers to craft articles for publication on and off campus.
The final session on crime and forensics, including plenty of discussion about the CSI TV drama, was led by Banerjee, who plans to pursue medicine after she graduates.
Referring to his undergrad instructors, Kelly says: “I think they did a pretty good job. They were outgoing, they answered questions.”
Says Kraven: “They were amazing. They went above and beyond what I would have expected.” She cites as examples the Elmo dolls given to the pregnant teens and CSI books handed out to all the students.
Churchyard says exploring lesson materials and props mirrored the purpose of the sessions themselves, intended to present options and “ways to knowledge” for the teens.
“We didn't go trying to change their lives but to change their learning. This is what universities should be all about — open learning, curiosity.”
Emes says the outreach program also benefited his students. “As a learning exercise, it challenged them to think creatively about how to communicate science and to use a wide array of resources. Importantly, they discovered a lot about the process of learning, which will provide a broader benefit to their own undergraduate experience as they go forward.”
His first-year seminar course was one of several around campus that have incorporated community outreach, says Cheryl Rose, a community service learning specialist with Student Life and Counselling Services and executive director of the Canadian Association of Commu- nity Service Learning.
Other initiatives this year involved courses offered through the arts and science program, the Department of Plant Agriculture, the School of Rural Extension Studies and the Human Rights and Equity Office.
Rose says their GYC experience allowed Warren, Churchyard and Banerjee to consider the relevance of scholarship and research and the importance of communicating science to varied audiences. “It's an opportunity for students and faculty members to step into the role of active citizens as part of their lives on the University of Guelph campus.”
