They may not yet have the bus, but that hasn’t stopped HMC’s Science Bus Project volunteers from reaching out and inspiring youngsters at local elementary schools.

With the schools only walking-distance from campus, the college’s student tutors are focused on the weekly science lessons they teach their young apprentices.

“We try to present science in a fun and exciting way in the hopes of getting these young students to consider science as a future career,” explains Catherine Bradshaw ’09, a mathematical biology joint major from Thousand Oaks, who tutored and organized the program’s volunteers during its first semester.

The community outreach program began in November 2006 from an idea initiated by Bob Schaffer, visiting professor in the HMC Department of Engineering. He was one of the first tutors with the Science Bus program at Stanford University when he was a graduate student there.

During the first semester, more than two dozen active volunteers (students, faculty and staff) from Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College offered lessons on chemical reactions, buoyancy, biological diversity and bacteria growth to seven classrooms at Oakmont and Sycamore elementary schools in Claremont.

“We try to make it interactive,” says Schaffer. “In the first 30 minutes we have a discussion of science and our weekly topic. Then, over the next hour or so, we do an activity with the students that brings to life what we’re talking about and work through questions when we’re done.”

Not only do the elementary students benefit. The college students do too.

“The tutors get a real sense of what it’s like to be a teacher,” Schaffer says. “It’s an important skill that you don’t just get through a traditional college classroom.”

“It’s also a great way for us to learn how to adapt our vocabulary for a younger audience,” adds Bradshaw, who will be the program’s lesson plan coordinator for the 2007-08 academic year.

Schaffer and his group hope to expand the program with more volunteers, more elementary schools and year-round tutoring.

“It’s really a great program,” says Bradshaw. “The kids love it and their teachers are just as enthusiastic.”

For more information, visit the Science Bus Project website.