Service Beakers

Our mission is to educate elementary and middle school children about STEM topics and guide them in using their knowledge to start innovative community service initiatives. Our team addresses the need for more in-depth science education in the state of NC due to notable lack of teacher funding in addition to educational disparities as a result of COVID-19 and the shift to virtual schooling. There is notable demand from students for more hands-on, experiential learning and demand from teachers for outside help to develop creative, fresh curriculums. Additionally, with the shut down of many in-person businesses, many high schoolers are looking for virtual opportunities to volunteer and give back to their communities. We are a team of high school, college, and graduate school students led by Ethen (Yale University PhD student) and Isaac (High school student) Lund who have all been through the North Carolina schooling system. We have experienced first hand how classrooms lack the necessary resources to fully engage students, and we are all now experiencing the difficulties associated with online learning. We’re united by our shared interest in combating educational disparities in our home state and also in stroking a passion among young students for STEM and future careers in teaching, service, and research.

Service Beakers is an science and environmentalism education group that not only provides free, hands-on-activity-based science lessons to elementary and middle schoolers, but guides the students in applying their knowledge by starting their own community service initiatives through our flagship "Start-Your-Own Initiative" program. An example student initiative project is one where one of our students is re-using her household plastics to make innovative artwork, and efforts such as hers are incentivized through rewards such as medals, monetary rewards, and getting exhibited in one of our partners, Kaleideum North Museum. The emphasis on young students applying their scientific knowledge in the form of community engagement is what makes Service Beakers unique and innovative. Together, we 1) create a more robust STEM pipeline among NC youth, 2) combat education disparities across different schools in the Raleigh-Durham area, and 3) inspire elementary and middle school students to think critically about how they can serve their own communities. At present, we’ve taught lessons at 7 elementary and middle schools and reached over 2000 students via our virtual lessons. We have established working relationships with 15+ teachers and classrooms and have received return invites from all 7 schools. Further, we’ve recruited 40+ high school, college, and graduate school student volunteers to begin teaching lessons as we expand to more schools and possibly transition to in-person learning.