Future Ph.Ds of Dixon: Dixon Elementary School students in Jeannie Cornelius’ class pose with the Sci Guy, Chad Lauritzen from C’YA. The local non-profit received grant from the LANL Foundation, which allows the science educator to buy supplies such as these safety glasses and lab coats and to teach fun free science at six elementary schools on his Fridays off from LANL. Courtesy photo
Champions of Youth Ambitions (C’YA) has received its first grant from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation.
The $1,500 grant allows volunteer educator Chad Lauritzen, known as the Sci Guy when he visits area elementary schools, to purchase items that just couldn’t come out of pocket. He will use the funds to teach hands-on science in six elementary schools throughout the region.
“I have 16 different science projects that I teach,” Lauritzen said. “Some of the kid’s favorites are surface tension, static electricity, Newton’s Second and Third Laws of Motion and walking on water.”
Thank you letters are Lauritzen’s favorite and hang where he can be reminded daily, but the true joy comes in being able to share his enthusiasm and get kids excited about science, he said.
“I was most excited to purchase enough lab coats and safety glasses so that the students could wear them and feel like scientists during their science lesson,” he said. “The grant also covers some materials and supplies for the current science projects that I’ll present through the school year.”
The past two-and-a-half months have had the, “fun free science,” in the hands of more than 300 eager learners, with three more classes scheduled before the holidays are in full steam. This week, Lauritzen is teaching density as well as acids and bases with the Chamisa Cheetahs for third and fifth grades.
For information about C’YA, email the Sci Guy at cya.org@att.net or call 505.695.9139.
