Road Trip - Falfurrias Texas!

"The one thing I will remember from participating in this event is that even in a small town with the stigma of education maybe not being the most important thing, there were so many supportive teachers, parents, and members of the community involved. That was such a great portion of the night and I'm sure it meant a lot to the students."

Part of my work with Gear-UP involves going to communities where students do not see the importance of college, teachers may need some help, and generally assist in motivating all to make the transition to college. I involved my preservice teachers this semester as they trekked 90 miles each way to bring their projects to Falfurrias, Texas. All three campuses were involved in Fal - elementary, intermediate and high school. In addition the high school students in Fal created projects that they did with elementary students! It was awesome - much work that yielded so many rewards. I am thankful to my PST's for sacrificing their time. It was well spent, and in many cases, an eye-opening experience for them as they worked with a rural school district.

Here are some pictures from the town:

The main landmark - the water tower.

A town that boomed when oil and gas pushed Texas' economy in the '70's, those days are over. There are more boarded up houses than houses that are lived in.

The movie theater.

The pharmacy.

Turn to the high school.

You don't have to live in Dallas to be a Cowboy's fan.

The night held many pleasant surprises -- high school students who appreciated meeting and talking to my students, and for the first time, many inquired about college and the college experience. One student was a natural born teacher - I saw it. I encouraged her to apply for scholarships and come join our program. She was genuinely excited! We gave away microscopes and other prizes to budding scientists. I am still hearing stories of perceptions that people took away that evening. I think the proof is in the statement made by the high school principal, "We are going make Family Science Night an annual event!".

Perceptions from my students:

*"We underestimated the students and their background knowledge."

*"Some of the projects that the high school students created gave us a run for our money!"

*"The atmosphere was very welcoming and warm."

*"The projects developed by the high school students were greatly reflective of the active, adventurous nature of teenagers."

*I think this experience was neat for me to be a part of because I had the opportunity to see community-centered learning happen right in front of my eyes."

"Personally, I thought this was the best family science event of the semester....The spotlight was on the high school students and I felt as if were there for backup support."

*"My first thought when you told us about this assignment was, "Where the heck is Falfurrias Texas?"

*"The high school students were getting down to eye level with children and sharing their knowledge with them. I found this very touching to see."

*"This is the best family science night out of all of them. There was a lot of interaction and participation with the families which is something that we have not seen in a while....There were tons of different projects...I even saw grandparents!"

*"The town was very cute but was rundown and lonely. It was fascinating to see the town and the people. The people were very nice and encouraging and they were all very interested in one another's hard work."

*"I would like to share my heightened desire to be involved in science and teaching science....Teaching at Family Science Night makes me feel like a real scientist and I am very pleased when the participants can learn from me and take the information into their own lives."

*"The best way to learn is to teach."

*"I believe this was the most important Family Science Night for us future science teachers. We were able to see the event from the presenters perspective and the guest's perspective. We were able to see a variety of projects that we can use in our own classrooms. As a future science teacher, I will definitely be using the idea of having my students present projects in the same or a similar manner as they did at this event. I have really enjoyed these events and am actually a little sad that this was the last one we will have this semester."