Our Local Student Research Group (LSRG) looked for an outreach opportunity to give back to the community and promote research.

Our community outreach chair, Brice Bennick, and I stumbled onto a volunteer request posted by the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham. The McWane Science Center is a staple in the childhood of many members of our student body and the city of Birmingham. The McWane Science Center’s webpage describes their organization’s goals as such, “We strive to inspire our community members through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ... Students and visitors are not learning through lectures at McWane Science Center; they are learning by doing, asking questions, creating their own hypotheses, and testing and rethinking their own ideas and beliefs.” The SRG feels as though our goals in community outreach aligned with the goals of the McWane Center and we were thrilled to begin our volunteering experience.

We clocked in at 7:45 AM on Saturday to begin our morning of volunteering. We met up with Anna Fuqua, the volunteer manager at the science center, for our debrief. Our mission for the day was exhibit cleaning. Anna passed around aprons, rags, cleaning spray, and sponges and sent us off to the exhibit floor.

As we continued cleaning and as our rags and sponges turned darker, the exhibits noticeably brightened.Working as a team, we spread throughout the facility targeting high traffic areas with our cleaning solutions and elbow grease. We polished beds of nails, miniature vet offices, and all sorts of physics demonstrations. Our SRG volunteers were working hard and having a blast reliving childhood memories while making a difference in our community. We finished up our last exhibit just after 9:45 with doors opening at 10:00. We gathered by exhibits for photos and then were told we had the whole center to ourselves until the general population would be let in. After a morning of hard work, there was no greater reward than being able to pet some stingray and shark with no line.

When I asked Anna after the service event about the importance of our role she stated, “Exhibit cleaning volunteer opportunities play a crucial role in supporting McWane Science Center’s mission of sparking wonder and curiosity about our world through hands-on science experiences.” Frankly, during our cleaning I felt as though we could not have been making such an impact on the McWane Center, but Anna went on to further elaborate, “By maintaining a clean and inviting space, we create an environment where our visitors feel comfortable engaging fully with our hands-on exhibits and programs. They can spend their time and energy exploring new concepts, building feelings of self-efficacy, and increasing their sense of belonging in STEM.”

The experience was both humbling and invigorating. Seeing the lines of young learners pouring in as we left for the morning made us feel as though we had truly made a difference. This experience was a joy to take part in and we plan to do another such outing this coming year. We would like to thank the McWane Science Center and Anna Faquad for allowing us to give back to our community in such a manner.