March 19, 2024

ScienceTellers Visit Childcare Center

ScienceTellers
Nathaniel Sheffield, left, a student at the St. Charles Children’s Learning Center at the College of Southern Maryland, assists Devin Johnson of ScienceTellers with a demonstration about flash paper.

Science was the word of the day for kids between 2 and 12 years old at the St. Charles Children’s Learning Center at the College of Southern Maryland. Children at the center learned a variety of science concepts — like hypothesis, condensation, experiment, and evaporation — at a ScienceTellers presentation Nov. 10 at CSM’s La Plata Campus.

ScienceTellers

Kalia Gillissen, a student at the St. Charles Children’s Learning Center at the College of Southern Maryland, assists ScienceTeller Devin Johnson as he shows how he turned liquid into a gel.

Devin Johnson, who boasts the title of ScienceTeller, was dressed in a rainbow-colored, tie-dyed lab coat. Mr. Johnson got help from the kids as he showed them amazing experiments, creating “clouds,” demonstrating the fire created by flash paper, and turning water into a gel.

“We’re combining science and story,” Mr. Johnson said as he intermittently told a pirate story to the kids. “The experiments go along with the theme of the story.”

Ms. Johnson said the idea of ScienceTellers is to relate familiar concepts with new concepts as the kids learn them. “It works. I see it. They’re captivated by the whole experience,” he said while setting up before his presentation. “I hope that they take away from this an interest in learning.”

ScienceTellers

Children from the St. Charles Children’s Learning Center watch a ScienceTellers presentation.

“We are excited that our students have this opportunity to be exposed to science concepts in such a fun way,” said CLC Director Shirley Allen.

For information about ScienceTellers, visit the group’s website.

The CLC has operated for 11 years and is accredited by the Maryland State Department of Education. It provides students, faculty, and staff at CSM, as well as community members, quality, child-centered care for more than 100 students between the ages of 8 weeks to 12 years. With 10,000 square feet of learning space, the center includes nine child-centered classrooms, a gymnasium, and a prep kitchen. The center also has a private landscaped playground and access to the campus grounds.
For information on the CLC, visit CSM’s website.

For more about the College of Southern Maryland, visit its Leader member page.

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