We had three amazing college students work with us to deliver the Girls in Science Camp at Green Street and serve as role models for the campers. This year, those young women were Josephine Ho, Mackenzie Schlosser, and Victoria Barr. In this six-part series, they share their experiences and favorite moments of the week.
Girls in Science Camp Reflection – “Young People Have a Lot to Offer”
by Mackenzie Schlosser
I haven’t spent much time teaching girls this age, so I was initially a little nervous for how the week would go. I’ve done chemistry demonstrations for high schoolers, and we’ve always been conscious of the level of science education they had so that we would pick experiments that wouldn’t go over their heads. For the girls in science camp, we discussed so many exciting and advanced topics. We talked about DNA, nanoparticles, light, and many other things that I didn’t learn until at least middle school or high school.
I wasn’t necessarily surprised, but it was a fun experiment for me to see how quickly they all learned what we were teaching. I think this is a good lesson for everyone. Just because people are young, doesn’t mean they aren’t highly capable. Many adults try to dumb things down for younger people and think they’re immature. Working with all these really clever girls proved to me how important it is to challenge young people and hold them to high standards. More often than you’d think, they can meet and exceed your expectations.
