Think you can teach the concepts of the solar system to a fourth-grader? Then ME/MSE junior Hillary Green’s volunteer program may be for you.
    Green runs an after-school science class at LeConte Elementary School, taught one afternoon a week by Berkeley Engineering
students. The program covers astronomy, buoyancy, chemistry and structural engineering.
    Green is always looking for more engineering students to pitch in and help the next generation. Students can volunteer just once or for the entire six-week session. The next session begins in late January. For one recent project, the kids received phosphorescent powder and learned how to make glow-in-the-dark slime.
    “What engineer can say no to that?” Green asks. She says she’s hoping to raise enough money through business donations and possibly a bake sale to take the class on an outing to San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
    Green got involved because she had highly influential science teachers when she was growing up, she says. “One in particular, Mrs. Allen, took a special interest in me and really helped me pursue my interest in science,” she remembers.
    Allen taught Green fifth- and sixth-grade science at Brywood Elementary School in Irvine. “If she hadn’t gotten me so excited, I probably would not be at Berkeley today.”
    Green’s program is partially funded by a Berkeley Hillel grant called the “Doing Good Well Program.” She says volunteering is simply the right thing to do.
    “We’re so lucky to be at the best public engineering school in the country. The least we can do is say ‘Thank you’ to the people who got us here and give back.”

Reach Green at: hillgreen@berkeley.edu