Más Bakersfield

Chavez students explore science careers

Kern County firefighter Danny Solis recently responded to an important call involving children in northeast Bakersfield.

But this call was to fire up the minds of young students at Cesar E. Chavez Elementary School who spent the day exploring science-related careers.

The Science Career Day is part of the school’s magnet program that seeks to teach and connect Chavez students to the world of science, officials said. Three Bakersfield City School District schools offer an after-school magnet program. Chavez offers the science program to approximately 400 students, many of them minorities, each year, according to the school’s Web site.

As a science–based magnet school, Chavez provides students with science lab activities and topics such as the human body, marine biology and oceanography on a daily basis.

The school’s second annual Science Career Day featured local professionals who sought to demonstrate the importance of a science background in a variety of fields. They included law enforcement officials, a bee keeper, a science teacher, a forensic science team and others.

Solis, whose three children attend Chavez, volunteered for Science Career Day by talking to students about being a firefighter.

“Our kids have been coming here ever since kindergarten, and they love coming to school,” said Solis. “Their eyes have been opened to things they might not have learned at other schools.”

Participant Danny Arretche, a teacher at West High School, encouraged students to explore careers in science education.

“Becoming a teacher is seen as secondary for college students studying science. They usually go into the industry first because the pay is better,” said Arretche, who teaches science.

Chavez magnet students attend regular day, core academic classes from 8:12 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. and then participate in the extended day magnet classes until 5 p.m.  Students who are in the program attend three, 40-minute magnet activity periods. Science topics are changed every semester; the school also has a greenhouse, which students use to grow plants and vegetables, even giving names to the plants.

Martin Granados, a 10–year–old fifth-grader at Chavez, says he’s learning about physical education and Newton’s three laws of motion.

“I learn a lot about science at this school, how things work and about new things in the world,” said Martin.

School principal Ruscel Reader added that the students are exposed and challenged by everything from gardening to chess. A lot of the activities are hands on to keep the students intrigued.

The event also helps students learn how their education serves them later in their lives, Reader said.

“We want to introduce science careers to the students to show them where science can take them,” she said.