Where Do Science Teachers Come From?
Batting Nine Hundred: Director Alan Friedman with New York Hall of Science Explainers Emilio Vozzolo and Michelle Rivera: Nine out of ten kids on the museum’s Science Career Ladder graduate from college. Photograph by Dwight Carter.
Stand still for a few moments in the gleaming, new, $89-million wing of the New York Hall of Science and you’ll meet an Explainer like Michelle Rivera or Emilio Vozzolo. These poised, red-aproned college students are proud of their role in the science center. “This museum couldn’t function without us,” one tells a visitor. To Dr. Alan Friedman, physicist, director of the museum, and the Explainers’ boss, the young people are the human face of the museum and a signature program of the nearly 40-year-old science center.
The Explainers are a constant presence in the museum that bustles with 25,000 visitors a month. Explainers may be describing the science underlying baseball in the Sports Challenge batting cage, or directing visitors to cafeteria and restrooms, or providing homework help to eager students. Michelle, a Queens College sophomore and five-year veteran of the Explainer program, enjoys working with kids the most: “They like to talk with someone who looks near their own age and who is really interested in the science and knows something about it.”
The hierarchy of programs at the Hall of Science, called the Science Career Ladder, is intended to encourage underserved minority youth and women to pursue careers in science, technology, and teaching. Starting in middle school, young men and women are recruited as program assistants, helping with demonstrations and exhibit interpretation, science-theme birthday parties, and special events. College students become Explainers, earning a wage while putting in up to 20 hours per week.
“Of all the programs the museum runs, this has the deepest impact on the lives of individuals,” says Friedman. “Being an Explainer can be life-changing.”
For Emilio, a junior at Pace University who grew up in Queens in the shadow of the Hall of Science, Explainers are a family tradition. His older sister went through the program and became a teacher in New York’s school system.
“We have a college graduation rate in the high 90th percentile,” Friedman says. “After working here, about one-third of our kids change their career choice to teacher.”
Although Michelle and Emilio haven’t made firm career choices, Michelle leans toward teaching. Emilio isn’t so sure, tending to favor “something in business.” Yet ask what he likes best, and he points to the outreach programs where Explainers improve the skills and knowledge of working teachers and accompany mobile labs around to local schools.
“The best part,” he says, smiling, “is teaching the teachers.”
About the Author
Bruce Campbell has written for Scientific American Explorations and Working Woman.
This article first appeared in NRTA Live & Learn, Fall 2005.
