Science depot staffed by one
By JACKIE BORCHARDT – Star-Tribune staff writer
Unpacking, sorting and packing are loathsome chores to most.
Jessica Cousineau does them every day — and she likes it.
As the sole employee at the Natrona County School District Science Depot, Cousineau is responsible for the contents of more than 1,400 boxes of science materials. Each box contains a teacher guide, student handbook and materials to conduct science experiments around a theme, such as the human body and magnetism and electricity.
The Full Option Science System (FOSS) “kits” have been the districtwide science curriculum in elementary and middle schools since 2009-10. The curriculum teaches “inquiry-based” science lessons, meaning students learn by conducting experiments and asking questions.
Teachers each check out a kit for a few months. District trucks collect the kits at the end of the semester and return them to the Science Depot, which moved from the Fairgrounds Center to the gym next to Star Lane Center on South Fairdale Avenue.
When the semester ends, Cousineau switches to autopilot, sorting through each box and preparing its contents for the next teacher in the fall. Cousineau said Natrona County’s Science Depot is the only one she knows that doesn’t have at least two employees.
Except for the radio playing in the back corner, Cousineau works alone in the gym converted last year into the Science Depot. Six-foot-high shelves full of boxes take up most of the space. The old school stage holds more boxes.
Buckets of twine, paper clips, masking tape and materials that might otherwise be found in a kitchen junk drawer line the back wall and one row of shelves. Cousineau pulls from these buckets to replace broken, missing or used-up pieces of the kits.
There are rubber bands that would fit snug around your pinkie and bands that could wrap around a watermelon, twice. One section of buckets holds cups, cups of all types — paper, plastic, plastic foam — and sizes — 3 ounces, 3 ounces with two holes, 5 ounces, 6 ounces, 8 ounces, 9 ounces, 16 ounces.
Some pieces, such as teacher guides and instruction videos, have to be specially ordered if they don’t get returned. Some of the kits require extra materials, which Cousineau gathers and puts in boxes before they arrive in schools. If a piece is missing or breaks or isn’t working after the kit is delivered to its destination, Cousineau runs to the school with a replacement or fix.
She hatched chickens a few days before teachers began theirs so she could answer questions and share tips. This summer, Cousineau plans to build an organism center to house pill bugs, mealworms, snails and other critters to be used in several classrooms.
Cousineau has performed many of the experiments, but doesn’t know the purpose of every material. She didn’t major in science and thought she applied for the wrong job when she showed up for her interview.
But it was the right job, Cousineau said, a job she enjoys. For each day she spends unpacking and packing, she spends one researching experiments or testing new equipment or running materials to schools.
“Kids don’t know me at all,” Cousineau said. But they welcomed her when she arrived at schools with the chicken eggs. “I had kids run up to me and give me giant hugs.”
She knows teachers by the names and bar codes on the boxes but often doesn’t know what happens when the kits leave her. She plans to visit schools this year to see the lessons being taught, to be able to better help teachers who use the kits in the future.
That is, if she has time.
Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_5fc509c7-2283-503f-934c-c4e5a98a6272.html