Girls Inc. of the Island City designed and hosted a 90-minute “Sun Fair” as a special event for elementary students as a real world way for middle school girls to act as role models for the elementary girls. The elementary girls participated in the Sun Fair as part of their regular afterschool program at Girls Inc. The Sun Fair began with a whole group presentation by the middle school girls, then the elementary girls split into groups to rotate through stations to engage in activities. The middle school girls led all phases of the project; they designed the overall structure of the fair; they identified roles for themselves to play, adapted demonstrations and activities for young learners, and together they very successfully ran the event including the presentations and station activities. The Girls Inc. coordinators Diana Cristales, Natalie Durante and Shampale Williams coordinated the logistical aspects of the event.
The Sun Fair served as the culminating session for the Five Stars program at Girls Inc. of the Island City. The last three sessions of the program were dedicated to the Sun Fair: one to preliminary planning, a second to practicing the demonstrations/activities with feedback, and the final session was conducting the Sun Fair itself with elementary students and parents visiting the Girls Inc. site.
Working with elementary students gave the middle school girls a chance to really shine and share their new-found knowledge. The teens created scientifically accurate explanations of solar structures and processes using language that a young child can understand. With the help of teen-created diagrams and analogies, they introduced the Sun’s zones, solar flares and sunspots among other solar topics. In keeping with Girls Inc. programs goals, they also included real life connections and reminded young girls to be safe in the sun with sunscreen, hats, glasses and the like.
In addition to the introductory solar science experience with compelling visuals and videos, the Sun Fair included three stations where the elementary students used hands-on activities to explore UV light, infrared light and finally were able to learn about galaxies. Each station was led by two teens and an adult from UC Berkeley. The overall coordination of moving children from one station to the next was overseen by the Girls Inc. Teen Program leader.
The program lasted 90 minutes and finished up with a chance to collect age-appropriate reading materials as well as information on other learning resources for parents. Many of our teens reported that this experience of teaching others was the highlight of the program for them.