Future Scholars Offer S.T.E.M Lessons at Area Schools
The Future Scholars Program, initiated by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Amalene Cooper-Morgan, Ph.D., in Fall 2021, continued in the spring semester with four new Ƶ students offering Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) lessons at area schools.
Seniors Madison Kober and William Sheffler, who both graduated in May, junior Nana Agyepong and sophomore Matthew Nguyen worked with students in the Jeannette City School District and Penn Hills Charter School on various lessons and experiments.
The program allows Ƶ students in the sciences an experiential learning opportunity that allows them to expand their leadership abilities and provides students in Jeannette and Penn Hills the opportunity to engage in science with people closer to their own age.
Kober, of Harrison City, Pa., and Sheffler, of New Stanton, Pa., who both majored in Biology in the cooperative Osteopathic Medicine degree program with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), developed lesson plans on blood typing and ocean currents.
Agyepong, of Gaithersburg, Md., a Biology major in the LECOM program, and Nguyen, of Morgan Hill, Calif., a Biochemistry major in the LECOM program, designed a lesson plan around acids and bases and tied them to impacts on the environment and everyday life. A lesson plan they developed on the cell cycle included an escape room activity.
Future Scholars also volunteered at a Girl Scouts event at Westmoreland Mall that focused on S.T.E.M.
The Future Scholars group all said the service aspect of the program drew them in.
"I was looking for the opportunity to give back," Sheffler said. "Hopefully, I was able to inspire students to enter the S.T.E.M. field."
Added Kober, "As student leaders, it's important to branch out further and look to the greater community."
Agyepong said she was a student in a similar program when she was in middle school and wanted to be able to do the same for someone else.
"The Future Scholars program gave me the opportunity to teach students something that interests me and gives the students a chance to engage more in science," she said.
