Mentors sought for science-minded middle schoolers

UW-Madison’s Adult Role Models in Science (ARMS) is seeking campus volunteers to help Madison area middle school students learn about careers in science, how science works and why it is important in their daily lives.

ARMS at the UW’s Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement (WISCIENCE) is recruiting mentors now for middle schoolers who would like to participate in the Madison Middle School Science Symposium. Anyone can serve as a mentor. Specific science background or experience is not required, but a good understanding of how science works, what scientists do and how they think through and implement research is helpful. Undergraduates, graduate students, staff and faculty have volunteered in the past and have served in successful mentoring roles, spending an hour a week helping middle school students develop skills and interests.

Mentors meet with mentees approximately one hour a week after school from November through April. Mentors are asked to help guide their mentees through a project, starting with asking and refining a research question and developing investigations to collecting data and analyzing and communicating results. Most mentors meet with their student mentees at their school after school for an hour per week.

If you are interested in mentoring, please take the mentor survey and complete a volunteer disclosure form. A mentor training session will be held Tuesday, Oct. 25, in room 110, 445 Henry Mall, from  4-5:30 p.m.

– Dolly Ledin