A Science Day for Syrian Refugees

Education is the best investment.

My name is Shirin Haddadin, a certified science teacher in the State of Massachusetts, USA. I will be visiting Jordan from July 18th till Aug 17th, and I am organizing a Family Science Day event in Zaatary refugee camp in Mafraq. We feel very sad for all the harm that the kids go through and we would love to spend a day with the kids to engage them with fun and exciting science activities, and hopefully teaching them some basic concepts in Engineering and Science.

In addition to the fun science and engineering activities with the kids, I would like to prepare a workshop with some science teachers at the camp to share with them some of the tools and the resources that I use in my classroom in USA, and transfer the knowledge to the teachers. I hope that after the meeting we start a network where we stay in contact and follow up with regular virtual meetings afterwards.

Most of the fundraising money will go to buy essential science equipment for the classroom. This link has a list of the tools and supplies that we are planning to purchase and are essential to have in any science classroom.The list in the following link was recommended by my advisor at Cambridge College Prof. John Papadonis, to whom I would like to extend my gratitude for his continuous support: 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S_fkLuU1axQD5bHwz6X0r2Prnz6V-zDP4gbbiYGe70M/edit#gid=0 

Objectives

The intended science event has mainly two objectives:

1)      Family / Kids Science Day: The following link has the content of the science day. 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZcUs7C2fk9mATN4Tb9lFcwOxUdCd3VNfa7sriZ4hUs/edit

a.       Beneficiary: kids age (6 – 12)

b.      The kids will be engaged with fun and exciting hands-on activities, and hopefully they will learn some basic concepts in Engineering and Science. Please follow the link again  for more information about the planned activities.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZcUs7C2fk9mATN4Tb9lFcwOxUdCd3VNfa7sriZ4hUs/edit

c.       A student “passport” will be distributed to each participant in order to encourage the kids and families to visit all of the available activity stations.  

d.       Prizes: Books and goodie bags will be distributed to each participant who had visited and participated at all the stations.

2)      Science Teachers Workshop:

a.       Beneficiary: science teachers who teach at the refugee camp for grades (1st-8th grade)

b.      Meet with some science teachers at the refugee camp, to share with them some of the tools and resources that I use in my classroom in the states, and transfer some of the knowledge to them. I also would like to use this meeting as a introductory meeting to better understand the teachers’ needs and to better customize other activities with them in the near future . I hope that we start a network of science teachers to follow up with them on a regular basis by using virtual meetings.

c.       The science teachers will receive some essential science classroom supplies and science kits with a science guide for the science activities.

Please consider donating so that the refugee families and their children may have this experience.

If you can give $500, if you can give $100, if you can give $50, if you can give $10, please do -- it will cost $5,000 to equip science teachers with essential tools to teach. Every donation will make a difference to this group of families and children living in the refugee camp. 
All help is greatly appreciated, and updates will be posted once this project goes ahead.