The Science National Honors Society has begun to make an impact not only one  McLean students but on the community as well. From volunteer opportunities, internships, and guest speakers, SNHS has impacted all aspects of the local community.

Ava Rotondo, a junior and member of the SNHS at McLean, created the School Scholastic Science Program. A volunteer opportunity at a local elementary school, Kent Gardens that introduces basic concepts of science through hands-on experiments.

“The volunteering was super fun. We got to teach kids how to apply science to everyday life, the experiments engaged the students by giving them fun things to do while explaining the scientific concepts,” sophomore volunteer Saankya Gundlapalli said.

The Kent Gardens Elementary School Scholastic Science Program allows high school students to encourage kids to become more engaged in science. Every Thursday members of the NSHS volunteer after school for about two hours and working closely with small groups of students to explain that week’s concept and experiment.

“The experiments were simple enough to do for young kids but they taught pretty complicated science in an easy way,” Gundlapalli said.

About 25 Kent Gardens students attend the after-school program, students are the split up into smaller groups and paired with a volunteer to work on that day’s experiment. With smaller groups, the students are able to create a better relationship with the volunteers, while volunteers can explain more in depth to those students.

“We were able to engage and build relationships with the students because we were able to teach them science the way that we learned it, so it was easier for them to understand,” Gundlapalli said.

The Scholastic Science Program held its first meeting on Thursday, March 7, and introduced the concepts of kinetic and potential energy through building catapults. Students built and designed their own catapults to launch marshmallows as far as they could.

The first meeting was a success, volunteers and students are excited about upcoming meetings. Through this program, students are able to expand their knowledge of science through interactive activities and build relationships with others.