It is quite interesting and rewarding to work with kids. It is very intense at times but very satisfying overall. We appreciate both the efforts and commitments of our volunteers.
“The sheer enthusiasm around them makes me feel young!”
President – Orexian Foundation
Typical Volunteer Responsibilities
- As a volunteer you facilitate the experiments and projects the kids perform.
- Each project and experiment has an associated Script and Work Sheet.
- These sheets look very similar except for the fact that they carry different information.
- As a volunteer you will be assigned to a group and will be given a Script Sheet at the beginning of the activity to monitor the experiment and project.
- Depending on the number of volunteers, you may have as many as 8 children in your group.
- Of course, we understand that not everyone has a lot of experience managing children, but we are around to help you.
- Each experiment and project has specific “Verification Steps”. These steps, clearly identified, are carefully chosen by the designers of the experiments/projects to ensure safety, accuracy and correctness of the experiment or project being worked on.
- The children will reach out to the volunteers to have a quick review to make sure everything looks okay before moving on to next set of steps.
- At some verification steps the volunteers may have to hand over additional project items (such as battery or a testing device) after verifying correctness of the build.
- The Orexian S4F Staff is there at all times to help volunteers just in case the volunteers need help to verify the correctness of the build before allowing someone to go to the next step.
- Some of the volunteers can be “Subject Matter Experts” and even the Orexian Staff could consult with them if needed.
- Additional responsibilities also include to monitor the kids if they are disengaged or distracted or having any problem. In this case request to involve Orexian Staff ASAP.
We also ask our volunteers to provide us feedback during or at the end of the session to improve the overall experience for themselves as well as participants.
“S4F is all about learning science while having fun. The end goal or destination is important, but it’s the journey, the process of getting to the goal, that’s more vital.”
OREXIAN FOUNDATION – Philosophy
Eligibility
- Anyone who is above 21 can volunteer. Only the Orexian Staff can decide on an exception based on the qualification and specific training of an underage volunteer.
Restrictions
Volunteers will not be allowed to bring anyone (as additional volunteer or a participant) without prior approval/acceptance from the S4F Team