Water, Heat, and Wonderful Students! Rosharon "Bring Your Kids to Work Day 2012"
Printer-friendly versionHi SEED World! Allow me a second to introduce myself.
My name is Carolyn Finley and I am the newest member to the SEED Team. I was a classroom teacher before coming to SEED, working everyday with students of my own. I am looking forward to sharing my passion for science teaching with teachers and students from all over the world. One of the first assignments I was given upon arriving at SEED was to go to a “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” on June 22, 2012 in Rosharon, Texas, USA. This event allowed children of all ages to explore what their parents do for a living, and it hopefully showed many of them just how science impacts the world we live in.
The day was filled with activities for the students to complete, including hands on engineering projects, robotics demonstrations, a mobile offshore learning lab and hands on SEED activities.
Two other SEED Staff members, two SEED volunteers from the Rosharon Campus and I presented the Water Testing SEEDKIT to about 50 students, ages 10-18. We split the student into 9 different groups to ensure that they could all have hands on experiences! The students were engaged from the moment we said “GO!” and despite the 104F temperature outside (Texas summers rock!), we had groups race to the on-site lake to gather water samples. We also had groups test the tap water from a local home, bottled water, and the drinking fountain water (some employees have become concerned about the “taste” of the fountain water). The groups took about 30 
minutes to run all of the tests and to come up with their findings.
I have only been away from my own classroom for about a month now, and I was itching to get back to interacting with students and seeing just how much they can amaze us with what they know. The students we had the opportunity to work with blew us away! They all wanted to do science and experiments even though they are on their summer break! We all really enjoyed getting to watch them get wet, test water, and analyze the results. It is amazing how the students dove into a project that they had just received!
Perhaps my favorite part of the day was getting to interact with our two SEED volunteers that helped make the workshop possible. Thank you Auhona Hoq and Harsha Pakhal for giving up part of your day to make a difference! Without Schlumberger employees to help I don’t know what we would have done. They are on the front lines of science every day, putting into action what SEED is all about!
This small scale impact excites me for the larger impact the SEED community can have on science education.
-On a side note: One of the students at the event actually was a student at the school I taught at! She sure did turn my head when she called me Mrs. Finley! What a small world!
- Carolyn Finley's blog
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Fantastic blog Carolyn! It is good to have you as the newest team member!
As one of the other two SEED staff present, I agree with Carolyn that these students were remarkable in their eagerness to participate. Each group carefully read the instructions and performed the tests before posting their results. There were also a number of parents present and I think they were surprised at how well all the students worked together and how much fun they had going through each test. It was a great day and I hope we are invited to participate in future events like this where we can have more of our fabulous volunteers experience the wonder of students working together and really connecting while learning about their world - and in this case, learning more about water quality and how it impacts their world. Good job SEED!
Thank You so much for your blog Carolyn!!! I am so happy to know you are here with us!
I completly agree with you when you wrote:
"Without Schlumberger employees to help I don’t know what we would have done. They are on the front lines of science every day, putting into action what SEED is all about!"
That has been my experience with SEED to see how much the employees give from their time and heart to make it happen on the field. Today, we know it is worth the journey.
VIVA SEED Worldwide. THANK YOU to the Schlumberger Family.
Excellent! So glad you had this opportunity for some SEED-related work in the local area. Thanks for sharing!
Tom
Water quality can no longer be taken for granted; it's going to be up to a new generation of young people to be informed about the looming local - and global - issues, and become motivated to act.
Kids get fired up and passionate about learning when they see the teacher passionate about knowledge. Carolyn is an awesome addition to SEED.
-Chris
Sounds like a cool day, Carolyn. There's nothing like the burning, hot Texas sun to remind us of the important role water plays in each of our lives.
What were the results of the tests? Were the samples drinkable?
Love
Good Question!
The samples that were taken from tap water, bottled water and the fountain all showed the same results. The water from the lake had a high pH which made it suspicious at best even thought the other test came back within normal ranges. We also preformed the tests here, in Sugar Land, at our own lake and the results were different because the company uses an artificial coloring agent to make it the pretty fake blue color. The clarity of the lake water from Sugar Land was horrible, but the pH was more in the normal range, around 7. We also had more time here at the office, so we preformed the Caliform Bacteria Test and the results proved that the water should not be drank under any circumstances! I am sure this is directly related to our turtle and fish friends that inhabit our lake.
Thanks for asking!