“Ewww,” “yuck,” and “no way” can be heard emanating from the students when they learn what the owl pellet they are dissecting actually is! And then, the fun begins. Donning lab coats and preparing to explore the pellets, students discover the bones of field mice and reconstruct the skeletons. Recently John Glenn High School club constructed a growing wall for an indoor garden. They then feasted on kale and assorted new treats in an effort to understand more about plants, growing and food sources. The level of engagement is 100 percent.
 
EMU associate professor Chiron Graves’ undergraduates are preparing to be secondary science teachers. In lieu of observing traditional classrooms for the required pre-service hours, they become teachers in the EMU-Bright Futures after school programs. The students develop and facilitate clubs and use all that they learn in this academic-service-learning course to implement a successful science experience for the youth they serve. Club names are designed to attract students who may have mixed feelings about science during the school day -- examples include Mad Scientists, Squishy Squirmy and Green Thumb clubs.
 
Dr. Graves teaches his students the claim, evidence and reasoning framework of science education. His students learn to facilitate science activities, observe the club’s students, ask probing questions and reflect regularly on their process and the student learning.  These EMU students research their own clubs and outcomes to develop expertise in reflective practice. They use video recordings to examine their teaching and they present their research results to the EMU Bright Futures staff in order to keep the collaboration strong and evolving.
 
For future science teachers, experience in the field with a strong reflective practice can make all the difference. Teacher education is about helping practitioners, new and continuing, to identify areas of strength and weakness, know their passions and develop their own social capital to support continued progress. At EMU Bright Futures, this is done through relationships, practice, failing forward, reflection and teamwork.
 
Eastern Michigan University’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Bright Futures, has 20 sites covering 2nd through 12th grade in three school districts along the Michigan Avenue Corridor in Southeast Michigan: Romulus, Wayne-Westland, and Ypsilanti. The program is committed to the Youth Program Quality Intervention model, which focuses practice on postive youth development. This model supports research-based practices including reflection, community building, youth voice and how to provide structure and clear limits.
 
Being at or near a university means having access to extensive resources, most importantly, students. In partnering with university professors, the program is able to help EMU students get meaningful and rewarding experiences that contribute to their understanding of their roles as teachers, social workers or occupational therapists, to name a few. Working with EMU’s Office of Academic Service Learning and faculty who use ASL as their methodology for delivering their course content, the program is able to support the EMU students with rich experiences and increase the number of qualified adults to work with elementary, middle and high school participants. The university students provide a great opportunity for our kids to learn about college, as well.
 
In each case, partnerships require an investment of time on the part of the professor and students as well as the entire EMU Bright Futures team, beginning with the administrative team. Meetings to plan out logistics, identify the sites that will host the EMU students and develop a strategic partnership that benefits all who are involved. Additionally, EMU Bright Futures staff provide workshops for participating EMU students so that they can learn the positive youth strategies embedded in the practice.
 
EMU students gain valuable experience and the EMU Bright Futures students experience content-rich clubs and new relationships with university students who expose them to the college-going culture. These partnerships created are win-win for the program, for K-12 students and for the future teachers who participate in the ASL process.
 
For more information on EMU Bright Futures, please visit the program website at emubrightfutures.org.
 
For more information on the Youth Program Quality model, visit the Weikaert Center for Youth Program Quality website at cypq.org.