Science Can Be Fun...

The Campus YMCA seems to really love to help and mentor youth. Our Y Catalyst program is no different. The Campus Y provides an after school program at a local YMCA site where we teach the kids about science.

LU's Campus YMCA is paired with Immanuel Lutheran School right here in St. Charles. Immanuel provides a YMCA after school program. Once a week our Campus Y volunteers head over to Immanuel and work with the kids on a science experiment for that week. Usually we meet for about an hour and it gives the kids something different to look forward to then their normal routine.

The after school program consists of children from ages 6-12, which is really diverse age group. We try to do experiments that are easy enough for the young ones, and challenging enough for the older ones.


There are all different experiments we have done with the kids, but my favorites are always the ones that are experiments that are very interactive. One that the kids really loved was when we put milk in a round dish, then we added drops of food coloring in different places in the milk. Then we put a drop of dish soap on the end of a Q-tip, and touched the Q-tip to the color droplet in the milk. When this happens the milk and colors start to move and the kids were able to make some cool designs.

Afterward, we ask them to think about the experiment. Why they thought the milk and color drops moved? Would the experiment be different with different milk? Our goal is to interact with the kids, but to also encourage them to think. Sometimes learning from a college student is different then their science teacher they see everyday.

It is awesome for us to mentor to them and to encourage learning.

When the Campus YMCA has fundraisers some of our money goes to this program as well, because we provide all of our own material for us and the kids every week.