Greece Career Exploration Day 2013

Today was the 5th annual Greece Apollo Athena Career Exploration Day! See what I did there? Well, things were a little different this year, since Greece has restructured its schools and Apollo no longer exists. Since one of our principal players is now at Athena, this year's event was planned for 8th graders from that school. On my end of things, the shift represented little more than a name change, except for one other significant difference - we were up to 100 students attending! (Meaning: each of my two groups would be around 50, versus last year's ~25.) This is great since we're reaching more students, but would groups so big turn out to be too hard to handle? Well, I wasn't too worried since historically this event has always been one of the smoothest.

This was my fourth year leading the Imaging Science workshop (omg, have I really been here that long?), and each year I wonder how the kids can possibly outdo the class from the year before. This event consistently brings me the most enthusiastic and engaged groups, who always surprise and impress me with one thing or another - one year there were kids asking me for autographs, one year the kids were so excited to interact with the camera that I couldn't even finish my presentation, and last year brought a whole new level of interaction with the integration of Twitter into the presentation. What could possibly happen this year to top all that?!

As usual, the kids did not disappoint. Both of my groups were incredibly interactive, relaxed, and FUN. They intelligently answered questions, and were raucous without being disruptive or disrespectful. I think part of the success of the event is due to the fact that the teachers get into it, too. (Even though one teacher got so into it that he spoiled part of my routine... but that's okay, I gave him a hard time for it and the students liked that.) In fact, when I got to the part where I hypothetically suggest that I dump my entire vessel of ice water all over whichever student is in the hot seat, one of the teachers said, "Go ahead!" I responded with, "I'm not sure what this says about your school, that your teachers are suggesting I drench one of your classmates with ice water..." which was met with boisterous laughter, but then the kid actually goes, "Yeah, I'll do it." Well, alright then.... and he ACTUALLY DID. (Why didn't I get any pictures of this?? I guess I was just too shocked.) I have never had anyone do that before!!! So, way to go, Athena 8th graders 2013 - you have managed to outdo all of the previous classes. (Except maybe the one that asked me for autographs... that was pretty exceptional.)

Just look at the faces on these kids.

Another highlight from this year was this one student in the front row who was obviously the class brain. He would raise his hand for EVERYTHING - to answer every question, to volunteer at every opportunity, literally everything. After the first couple times he proudly answered my questions, I started to say, "Okay, can anyone else answer besides him?" and he would anxiously sit there waving his hand, wanting me to call on him. When it came to the FLIR, I promised him I'd give him a chance, but I told him he had to wait because I had a plan for him. Even so, his hand would shoot up every time I asked for a volunteer - so every time I'd have to say, "Anyone besides him?" and he'd let out a little disappointed, "Awwo." It became a running joke after a while, and he was a really good sport. I wish I could get kids like that all the time... we had a good schtick going.

Anyways, the day overall went better than I can even possibly describe here. Because of their energy, enthusiasm, willingness to interact, and impressive intelligence, the Greece 8th graders hands down are my favorite group to host all year. They represent the ideal audience - they are smart, fun, respectful - and my presentations to them always go smoothly and exactly how I would hope them to. Actually, scratch that - these presentations usually exceed my expectations. My first presentation went so perfectly that one of the teachers told me that I "have a gift", and suggested that if my job ever falls through that I should seriously consider being a teacher. Wow,

Thanks to things going so well this year even with the school change, we have another whole group of teachers and administrators that are now convinced of the value in offering these important opportunities to students. In fact, a school board member was there and made sure to come up to me after the presentation to tell me how much he enjoyed it. What wonderful feedback! I look forward to hosting Greece Athena again next year, and with any luck, having more events such as this one in the future.

UPDATE 5/7/13: Survey results are IN! I will let them speak for themselves:

# of students who completed survey = 93

Imaging Science Workshop:

• 92 out of 93 rated the workshop as either good or excellent
• Common suggestions: Most said it was great and/or their favorite part, the content was easy to understand for most, and they especially loved the infrared camera experiment, a few said that would have liked even more "hands-on" activities

Information Technologies Workshop:

• 72 out of 93 students rated the workshop as either good or excellent
• Common suggestions: Really liked seeing the drone, would have liked more "hands-on" interactions such as using computers, more specific examples of how this science could be applied

Tour of campus:

• 92 out of 93 students surveyed rated the campus tour as good or excellent
• Comments: Would have liked a drink/snack/bathroom stop before tour, would have liked to see more of the sports facilities, liked seeing the art, statues, and fountains, really enjoyed waling around and seeing the students and campus

Lunch at Gracie's:

• All 93 students surveyed rated the lunch as excellent
• Comments: Many said the lunch was their favorite part and that the food was amazing, they enjoyed the experience and would have liked even more time in the dining hall

Overall rating of the experience:

• 92 out of 93 students rated their experience as either good or excellent
• Other suggestions: Some students said they would have liked a chance to "buy stuff", to make college students more involved in the experience, and to see a college class
• Comments: Students said it was "fun and educational", they were "thoroughly impressed", and they wished they could have stayed longer, 91% of students surveyed said either "yes" or "maybe" when asked if the experience had opened their eyes to potential job opportunities

What wonderful feedback from the students! Except for that one kid - there is always that one kid that wants to rate everything but lunch as bad...

UPDATE 5/21/2013: We just received the following wonderful note from one of the organizers in Greece (please excuse the impending shameless plug - to be fair, it's not a shameless SELF plug, since I did not write it...):

"For the past four years Greece Central School District has been sending a group of eighth grade students to RIT for a Career Exploration Day. The purpose of the program is to expose our accelerated Math/Science students to potential careers in the STEM fields. 

Through the generosity of RIT and the School of Imaging Science we have been able to bring over 300 students to RIT to learn about the field of Imaging Science, as well as a couple other programs. Throughout this time our follow up surveys overwhelmingly show that the Imaging Science presentation is their favorite part of our day at RIT, with the exception of lunch at Gracies of course! I wanted to be sure to let you know how invaluable Bethany Choate has been to the success of this program. Her ability to interact with our kids has been key in getting our kids involved in the presentation. It's not easy to hold the attention of up to 50 eighth graders in one room. Every year our teachers comment on her ability to keep them interested and participating. This year we had a member of our school board attend and he sought her out to thank her for the terrific job she did. I also wanted to let you know that without Joe Pow's help this program up may not have gotten off the ground. He was at our initial meetings and has given us tremendous support. 

I also want to share some very good news with you. The first group to go through the Career Exploration Day at RIT is now graduating high school. There were 72 students that attended the first program and eleven of them have applied to RIT, with seven of those kids applying to either a Math or Science program. 

Thank you for your terrific staff!"

I am particularly excited that we are able to start measuring the impact this program has had on these students, now that they are getting old enough to graduate high school! Perhaps I should make it a goal this coming academic year to reconnect with the students I saw back in 2010 (note to self)...