Vanderbilt helps make science fun for Metro students
Let’s shine a light on one of our city’s best science partnerships: Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science.
Vandy students have been bringing hands-on science experiments into our schools for 20 years now, reaching more than 71,000 children.
VSVS was created based on the belief that school-aged students don’t fully appreciate science solely from reading textbooks. The organization’s model sends small groups of trained volunteers into middle school classrooms to conduct academically relevant science experiments four times each semester for the duration of the academic year for a total of eight lessons. This year, 540 Vanderbilt students are partnered with 110 classroom teachers in 10 schools.
“When we get to our classroom, we set up so that no more than two or three students are working at a station, so these really are hands-on experiments,” said Megan Covington, a Vanderbilt senior majoring in engineering who is co-president of VSVS. “And while we’re helping with the experiments, the teacher is there encouraging responses from the students and reminding the class about how the experiment is related to lessons they’ve already learned.”