Weekly Classroom Program
The weekly classroom program is our most popular program with Yale students. Two- or three-person teams are matched with a classroom in a New Haven local elementary school. The teams visit the class once per week to teach a basic scientific concept to their students, using interactive demos and other hands-on activities. A detailed protocol for the demos and accompanying bag of materials is supplied at the start of each week in the Demos closet in Dwight Hall.
- Time commitment: One hour per week of teaching, plus extra time for travel (we will find a time which fits your schedule).
- Volunteers are expected to be able to commit every week and must let their class and teammate(s) know beforehand if they have an emergency and are not available a certain week.
- Volunteers may choose their partners – perhaps a friend or roommate – or have them assigned randomly.
- An orientation is provided at the start of each semester to explain logistics and provide basic teacher training to volunteers.
- Not a science major? Don’t worry! This is fun, elementary school science. We make lava lamps, silly putty, and ice cream. It’s a blast for everyone who loves fun and children!
Starlab
Demos is the proud owner of a traveling, inflatable planetarium. Starlab volunteers teach about constellations, Greek mythology, planets, comets, star formations, and more to deepen the students’ understanding of our universe.
- Time commitment: About 2.5 hours per show, and about 3-5 shows per semester.
- Starlab events usually occur on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, but other days of the week are open according to availability of volunteers.
- Starlab visits a variety of different schools for each show, in stead of going to the same classroom each week.
- A brief training session, led by the Starlab coordinators, will be provided for the volunteers to teach the essentials of using the state-of-the-art night sky projector (45 minute maximum before the show or during orientation at the start of the semester).