Getting learners excited about and engaged with science at a young age is what Science Delivered is all about. With a range of fun activities and informative narratives—many of which are now available on LabXchange—Science Delivered is working hard to increase access to quality science education for elementary school learners. We spoke to Olivia Mullins, executive director of Science Delivered, to learn more about the organization's work!

What does your organization do?

Science Delivered provides science education and enrichment to early elementary school students (grades K-5). Our current main project is “Learning2,” a science and literacy program aimed at elevating science education.

What's one fun fact that LabXchange users should know about your organization?

Science Delivered is based in San Diego, which has a fantastic STEM education community. We are a very small organization but are able to accomplish a lot through close collaboration with other non-profits. Additionally, we’ve had excellent skilled volunteers and contractors support our work over the years!

Which Science Delivered content are you most proud of?

The Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) lessons are very different and special. There was a mountain of work that went into these, it was a collaboration between myself, Dr. Seafha Ramos, a Wildlife Ecologist and Yurok Tribe member, and Cherie Paul, a 5th grade teacher. There were many additional contributors which you can see at the link, including Melitta Jackson (Yurok/Hupa/Karuk/Modoc), who made original art for the project.

I also like the Brain and Body Communication unit, particularly the background information for teachers. I have a PhD in Neuroscience and feel that we should focus more on how our brain/nervous is ultimately responsible for all our perceptions

There’s a sound activity where students can yell at a “salt-trampoline” to see salt move. I see this activity around the web sometimes and wonder if I was the origin of this activity! At the time, the most common similar sound activity was putting rice on Saran wrap over a bowl and having students bang a drum nearby to move the rice. But I found this unsatisfying, because I felt students would connect the banging movement with making the rice move, and not understand the connection to sound. So I came up with an easier and more instructive way to do this activity.

Finally, Science Delivered is running a science and literacy program. We do weekly lessons and create lesson extensions for the teachers. The lessons are not always simple to reproduce, but we will eventually post them open source. The lesson extensions are freely available, currently on Google Drive. Some extensions are specific to the activities but many others are not.

How can learners and educators best use your content?

Our content includes material used for our own programs or low-prep lessons that didn’t seem to exist elsewhere. So it really depends on the resource!

What motivates you to work in science education?

I have a PhD in Neuroscience, so when I switched to outreach and education, science education made sense. Since then, however, I have realized just how foundational science is in elementary school. It’s arguably the easiest to integrate with other subjects; ELA, math, and even art have a major role to play. Science is pushed out of elementary school to the huge detriment of students, and of course it’s always the most vulnerable students who are most affected. So now much of my time is spent working to get science back into the elementary school day.

Finally, what's your favorite science joke/pun?

“Never trust an atom, they make up everything.”

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Discover more from Science Delivered on LabXchange:

• Animal Adaptation (teaching guide)
• Your Voice and Vibrations (activity worksheet)
• All About Sounds and Vibrations - Teacher Scripts (teacher worksheet)
• Colors & Reflections (video)
• Meet a Scientist: Dr. Wendy Bohon (narrative)