Meet the People

Kayleigh Gyure

I'm an Elementary Education major in my third year here at Purdue. I've always enjoyed working with kids and helping them grasp new concepts that they will use later on in life. When I'm not taking classes I enjoy painting and take time to kayak in the summer. In taking PHYS 290 I was able to generate new and interesting activities to utilize in a common elementary classroom. By working with other students in the course we shared ideas of possible lessons and projects that could actually be carried out with younger students. We took complex cosmology ideas and transformed them into a format that was better suited for the elementary level. Our main focus was explaining the relationship between the earth and sun. Our ongoing activity transformed students into scientists, taking measurements and keeping record books of shadow positions throughout the day.  We also filmed a video to engage the students into the project.  All of our own personalities and ideas went into this project and gave it creative and entertaining aspects for the students to enjoy throughout the project.

Michael Anderson

I am a sophomore and I study physics at Purdue University. I started helping with physics outreach about a year ago. I enjoy learning the physics behind the projects and teaching other about it. My favorite topic was the cosmology teaching project. I basically helped make a lesson plan for a 3rd grade class and then went and helped teach it to them. While I consider myself very poor at teaching I had a lot of fun doing it and learned how to become a better teacher. The best part of the project was actually getting to see that the students enjoyed the lesson plan that I got a chance to help make.

Madison Briscoe

I am currently studying Elementary Education here at Purdue University. I really enjoyed working with my fellow classmates and professors in PHYS 290m. It was a wonderful way for me to gain teaching experience, knowledge in the fields of cosmology and science in general, and also public speaking skills. Within PHYS 290M, I helped develop a lesson plan about the relationship between the Sun and Moon, presented the material at the 2008 HASTI Conference, and finally taught the lesson plan within a 3rd grade classroom. I started the class with little knowledge about cosmology or planning educational lessons, but now I have a better understanding or how to create and carryout a science based lesson plan within an elementary classroom. I loved working on this project during the Fall
2007 Semester and I look forward to expanding on the project.

Daniel Parish