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Although our giving page is no longer active, you can still donate. If you would like to provide any additional support to our project, please do so here.
The wonders of science are all around us! The Wonders of Our World (WOW) science outreach program at The Ohio State University brings creative, hands-on science experiments to elementary school classrooms (grades K-5). The program was founded by Dr. Susan Olesik in 1999 in collaboration with Chapman Elementary in the Dublin City Schools.
Today, the WOW program works with three Columbus City Elementary Schools at a time, adopting each school for three years. In this three-year period, we cover a variety of science unit topics (biology, chemistry, physics, electricity, sound, plants, space and more) and visit every classroom once a month. We work with roughly 46 teachers from three schools and around 1,000 elementary school aged children every year.
The WOW program is a collaborative science outreach education program between active scientists and elementary school teachers. The WOW Program is made possible with help from over 70 Ohio State science and engineering undergraduate students. In addition to Ohio State students, the WOW Program has affiliates with local science organizations, Battelle and Chemical Abstracts Service. These partners volunteer in the classrooms so that elementary school students can learn scientific and engineering processes from a local scientist or engineer.
Once a Columbus City elementary school graduates from the WOW program, the school has manuals to conduct the experiments, but not the actual supplies. We would like to develop a kit that includes materials from all of our 15 units so teachers can continue the WOW experiments. National science scores have improved at the schools we work with, and we want to help these scores continue to improve even after they complete our program.
November 2020 Relaunch
Like many others, our program has undergone drastic changes in response to the public health crisis. In an effort to continue to deliver exciting and engaging science fun to students, we have transitioned to a virtual programming format. We have introduced new components to our WOW programs, including WOW at Home activities for children of all ages to work on hands-on science activities with supplies they have at home. We are also developing video instruction for our Columbus City elementary schools so that students can still experience our programs even if we cannot visit the schools.
Originally, we set up this BuckeyeFunder campaign to raise money for science kits to be provided when the school graduates from our programs. Due to this new virtual format, now we would like to provide a kit to each school at the start of a new unit. Each kit would contain not only the experiment supplies to work on these activities in the classroom, but also video instruction from WOW volunteers so the elementary students can still learn about the topic from a scientist or engineer. During this new normal, it is more important than ever that we are able to bring out the scientist in every student! With your support, we hope to develop kits for each school so that students can continue to benefit from WOW now and after we graduate their school.
Your contribution to our fundraiser will make development of these kits possible! Help us spread the excitement of science to the scientists of tomorrow!
If you would like to learn more about the WOW program, please visit wow.osu.edu.
Thank you for your support!
Each year, WOW implements 5-6 units on a variety of science topics.
The WOW program has been getting elementary school kids interested and excited about science since 1999.
Our WOW science kits will contain supplies for 15 units that focus on a variety of science topics.
We work with 3 Columbus City Elementary Schools at a time and each school works with WOW for 3 years.
Each year, over 70 Ohio State science and engineering undergraduates volunteer and teach our programs to elementary school kids.
