My last major activity before summer 2016 ended was being a mentor for dynaMIT, an MIT student-run program that seeks to ignite an interest in STEM in economically disadvantaged middle school students through a weeklong day camp filled with activities and experiments in a wide variety of STEM topics. That week was an amazing and rewarding experience for me. I was paired with another MIT student to mentor a group of three enthusiastic and curious middle school kids. By the end of the week, my kids had dissected cow eyes, played with oobleck, built an aluminum tower, and learned the basic responsibilities of a forensic scientist, and I had gained a newfound excitement of working with kids and a deeper appreciation for STEM.

There were a total of about 40 kids and 20 mentors in the program. Each day began with ice breakers, which involved running around with arms linked, following instructions from the Captain, and yelling out “pterodactyl” in the most hilarious way. Then, we’d engage in activities relating to the STEM topic of the day. Over the course of the week, the kids got to learn about the importance of adhering to specifications as a mechanical engineer, how an electronic circuit works, how to use a pipette, chromatography, the physics behind a ball traveling through the air, and the strategy for the Monty Hall problem. The kids also got to explore programming through building a game using Scratch. As a mentor, it was rewarding to see kids work together to solve the case of the Stolen Ring, build a straw bridge, and design a science experiment.

I had never been so excited to get up in the morning for an entire week. Even though being a mentor for dynaMIT consumed twelve hours every day, every minute preparing materials, guiding the kids through activities, and debriefing with the other mentors was so worth it because I realized that I was actually making an impact on these kids. These kids come from all sort of backgrounds academically – some love math and science, others prefer the humanities, some have dozens of Scratch personal projects, others have never programmed before – but there is so much value in the time we mentors invest in putting dynaMIT together in the hopes of inspiring middle school students to pursue STEM.

Something interesting that happened to me as a result of being a mentor for dynaMIT (among other things), is I have developed a stronger motivation in my studies as a computer science major and more enthusiasm towards life in general. People sometimes say “kids give me life”, and I think I actually experienced that through dynaMIT. Doing fun science activities all week with kids seemed to instill in me this excitement for making the most of every day. It’s interesting how something so simple and natural as being with kids can change someone’s attitude towards life, and I’m more than happy that dynaMIT did exactly that for me.

From the muse in me,

~ marG