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| Last updated on November 28, 2008 |
Maine School Science Volunteers works to improve the quality of science teaching in the middle school classrooms of Maine by providing the services of career scientists and engineers as assistants in middle school classrooms.
Description:
Maine School Science Volunteers ( MSSV) is a non-profit organization that brings together volunteer engineers and other physical scientists to assist teachers in middle school science and math classrooms. The program receives technical support from the founding organization at Northeastern University in Boston although we are now an independent Maine-based non-profit corporation.
MSSV recruits volunteers from the available pool of scientific professionals in the area where they want to work and after extensive training arranges to place them in classrooms for regular participation with science teachers. The training program focuses on the physical science and math requirements of the Maine Learning Results.
The volunteers offer a variety of benefits to the classroom. Their advanced training in science often gives them insight into the scientific material being presented in the class programs. Volunteers can provide classroom demonstrations or experiments otherwise difficult or impossible to carry out without additional classroom assistance. As mature professionals they may also reinforce the claim that mastery of the scientific material can lead to gainful employment. Finally, the presence of an extra adult in the classroom who is very familiar with the subject material will multiply the attention that can be given to each student during the class session
The volunteers are provided by MSSV without charge to the schools.
At present we have about 20 volunteers active in the south and central region of Maine. Since we are working primarily with retired professionals we are continually recruiting new volunteers to replace those leaving the program. We would like to increase the number of volunteers and to the extent that funds are available we will do that.
In addition to the recruiting and training and placement of new volunteers we are currently addressing a new task which is the development of a new volunteer training program which is coordinated with the Maine Learning Results. We are also working on preparation of a new training manual for volunteers which reflects the realities of life in the Maine middle school science classrooms and the evaluation programs embodied by the Maine Learning Results.
History:
The program started in Boston about 1991. The program was funded by The National Science Foundation and the initial program was focused on training programs for middle school science teachers in New England. The trainers were faculty members from Northeastern. Very early in the program the concept of introducing retired scientific and engineering professionals to the science teachers evolved and in the early teacher training programs groups of volunteers attended training classes along with the teachers. Through this association teachers and volunteers met and many worked out arrangements to assist science teachers in their classrooms on a regular basis.
During this time 2 week summer training classes were held in Maine and many volunteers were introduced to science teachers here in Maine.
Gradually the principal thrust of the effort changed to that of associating the teachers and volunteers and providing special training for the volunteers in the skills that would enhance their usefulness to the teachers. The program branched into two directions with one called Seed concentrating on teacher training and another called RE-SEED concentrating on the utilization of volunteers. Both programs are still operating in Mass. under the original names.
About 2 years ago the funding under which the program had been operating in Maine dried up and we had to make some changes to continue the program. Since the program had no affiliation with any non-profit in Maine a new organization in Maine was founded with seed funding provided by PROJECT RE-SEED. The program was called PROJECT RE-SEED, MAINE. This year the program was re-named Maine School Science Volunteers or MSSV because we felt that the name better described what we did. Under the old name many people assumed that we were involved with re-forestation.
Contact people:
Address:
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167 High Head Rd.
Harpswell, ME 04079
(See a map) |
Web Site: http://MaineSchoolScienceVolunteers.com
Directions:
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This an office address only. Meeting with volunteers and volunteer's activities take place at locations appropriate to activities. |
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