Elementary students at Montessori Children's House will not be attending college for more than a decade, but Thursday they were given the opportunity to be TCU students for one day when they made a trip to campus.
“It is important for kids to get interested in science early so that our nation can have an advantage and further ourselves economically,” said Kayla Green, TCU Chemistry Club sponsor and assistant chemistry professor.
Montessori Children's House is a school on the west side of Fort Worth with 108 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade.
Sixty of these students went on the field trip where they were separated into three different groups according to their grade level.
The red group consisted of first and second graders; the green group, third and fourth-graders and the yellow group, fifth and sixth-graders.
Several different activities, from demonstrations of chemical reactions, tours and hands-on labs were all a part of the experience.
“The goal is to help these students understand what it feels like to attend a university and have fun while doing so,” said Amy Henderson, owner and head of Montessori Children's School.
The elementary students got a chance to take a tour of the Mary Couts Burnett Library and visit the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery, as well.
The meteorite gallery exhibits the best of the university's diverse collection of more than 1,600 meteorites, including lunar and Martian meteorites.
Green said students enjoyed making ice cream, too.
“I enjoyed coming out and helping plant this science seed into these children at such a young age,” said Thomas Hale, a junior mathematics major and one of the 10 student volunteers for the day.
