hOW IT ALL BEGAN...
It all started with a small idea from two middle school students. After they approached their science teacher, it turned into a medium sized idea. And, after much discussion and planning, that medium sized idea turned into a REALLY BIG IDEA. Soon, the idea turned into a reality--a science education program for community members run by middle school students!! A "Citizen Science Education Program," CSEP, for short. And CSEPers not only take science out of the classroom, and spread scientific literacy, but they also do science like scientists do! This improves their junior scientist skills and 21st Century workforce understanding.
Read below to get the CSEP story right from the creators (ages 12 and 13 yo), themselves.
Read below to get the CSEP story right from the creators (ages 12 and 13 yo), themselves.
A Word from Our Creators
Hello, we are Jess & Nola, co-founders of the Citizen Science Education Program or CSEP for short. CSEP was not always planed out for us; our teacher didn’t come up to us and invite us into this arrangement. It started when Jess went to the Beneficial Bank and saw a flyer about a grant for a school with a plan to improve the local education centers and community around us. Jess’ mother picked one of the flyers up and joked and said we should try to win the grant. Jess took her joke seriously.
Jess pondered on which teacher she should approach to help win the grant. She thought she should ask the most dedicated teacher to help them win this to improve the community. We needed Mrs. Gorman. Being a little shy Jess asked Nola to be a partner in the grant and talk to Mrs. Gorman.
We needed a concept and FAST. After plotting what we were going to do we came up with some beneficial ideas and some not so worthy ideas, but in the end of the day we knew that we had two core ideas. One was to educate those around us and make them more scientifically literate. The other Mrs. Gorman came up with; the idea of using the money to upgrade our automated weather station with the latest in lightning sensor technology. We combined the two and some other things to get the wonderful concept that is now CSEP. We sent in our application video (SEE BELOW) and we were selected as one of the top five entries. We then went through a public voting process and WE WON! We created the CSEP challenge course at our school, led by Mrs. Gorman. Our hopes are that this program can spread to involve other schools at the regional, state, national, and even one day worldwide level. This would make more people educated in science and help those people make better choices.
One more thing! After we used the money we won from the Beneficial Challenge to upgrade our weather station, we still needed money to buy equipment to conduct our scientific experiments in the GLOBE program. Our local Medford Education Foundation gave us a really generous grant to buy the equipment.
CSEP you later!!!!
Nola and Jess
Below is the video made for and showcased on the Beneficial Bank School Challenge website.
Jess pondered on which teacher she should approach to help win the grant. She thought she should ask the most dedicated teacher to help them win this to improve the community. We needed Mrs. Gorman. Being a little shy Jess asked Nola to be a partner in the grant and talk to Mrs. Gorman.
We needed a concept and FAST. After plotting what we were going to do we came up with some beneficial ideas and some not so worthy ideas, but in the end of the day we knew that we had two core ideas. One was to educate those around us and make them more scientifically literate. The other Mrs. Gorman came up with; the idea of using the money to upgrade our automated weather station with the latest in lightning sensor technology. We combined the two and some other things to get the wonderful concept that is now CSEP. We sent in our application video (SEE BELOW) and we were selected as one of the top five entries. We then went through a public voting process and WE WON! We created the CSEP challenge course at our school, led by Mrs. Gorman. Our hopes are that this program can spread to involve other schools at the regional, state, national, and even one day worldwide level. This would make more people educated in science and help those people make better choices.
One more thing! After we used the money we won from the Beneficial Challenge to upgrade our weather station, we still needed money to buy equipment to conduct our scientific experiments in the GLOBE program. Our local Medford Education Foundation gave us a really generous grant to buy the equipment.
CSEP you later!!!!
Nola and Jess
Below is the video made for and showcased on the Beneficial Bank School Challenge website.