Organic Chemistry
Ginny Steinkamp and Meredith Stoops
In January 2019, Dr. Patrisha Bugayong, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at 小草影院, began her fourth semester teaching Organic Chemistry I and II Labs in a way that includes a service-learning opportunity. Each semester, her students have the option to choose an experiment they have already completed in lab and walk through that experiment with local high school students. 鈥淭he students like it, so it seems like the students from the first semester carry over to the second semester,鈥� said Bugayong.
Benedictine senior and Biology major, Daniela Garcia-Perez, enjoyed getting to work with the high schoolers and also felt benefitted as a chemistry student herself. Garcia-Perez said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting, because I think we had to understand it more to explain it to someone else.鈥� She has enjoyed watching the younger students grow, and she is happy she got to work with them saying, 鈥淚t鈥檚 really fun because it鈥檚 when they鈥檙e finding out what they really want to do, so it鈥檚 really interesting picking at their brains and asking them what they like and what they don鈥檛 like. 鈥�
Atchison High School (AHS), one of the course鈥檚 community partners, has also had a very positive experience. The first year that the course included service-learning, Benedictine Ravens went to AHS for the project. This year, however, local students visited the Benedictine campus for the lab. Bryon Hanson, Principal of AHS, thinks this is a very worthwhile opportunity for his students. 鈥淕iving our kids the exposure to college kids that are taking some of those upper level science classes is an amazing experience,鈥� he commented. 鈥淢any of the kids are looking at a potential science field in college, so making that connection is great.鈥� Hanson stated that the school鈥檚 partnership has been a happy one and the he has gotten very positive feedback from students and staff.
The Chemistry I and II service-learning labs not only supply academic knowledge for both 小草影院 students and the high schoolers, but they also foster and stress the importance of human connection. 鈥淚t reminds me it鈥檚 fun. It brings more enjoyment to it, I think, because as much as it was great for them, it was great for us too,鈥� observed Garcia-Perez. Dr. Bugayong hopes this service-learning option gives her students new opportunities to reconnect with their motivation to study the sciences: 鈥淚 wanted them to be able to connect with the experiments,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t felt like they were going through the motions of the experiment without any real life connection. It felt empty. The best feedback I鈥檝e gotten is that it reminded the student of why they got into the sciences.鈥�
Along with AHS, Chemistry students from Maur Hill-Mount Academy (MH-MA) also visited the Benedictine Campus for a lab in the fall, and Dr. Bugayong hopes to welcome back students from both schools, as well as other as other area high schools, in future semesters. Furthermore, she is considering ways to further challenge the Benedictine students who choose the service-learning option both semesters: 鈥淚 might allow for students to carry it over to the second semester and let them develop something on their own to help the community,鈥� she said. With the expected growth in projects and involvement in the community, it is anticipated that the Organic Chemistry students鈥� connection with the content of the course and with Atchison will only increase.