Learning Porous Media - The Fun Way

My first volunteering experience through my REU was assisting my mentor, Dr. Prodavonic, in a presentation she was giving to middle schoolers about Petroleum Engineering. During the presentation, she had the students do a small competition in which the students try to get the least porosity using different marble sizes. The way this task got done was by filling a cup of different marble sizes, and then filling the cup with water using a graduated cylinder. The student would then, find the difference between the initial amount of water and whatever water was left in the cylinder to get their porosity. The whole purpose of this experience was for the students to first, understand what porosity means when we speak about porous media, such as rocks, and second, to engage the students in the subject.

Helping the students accomplish their task not only made me feel good about myself because I was invoking in these students the importance of going to college and how to think about education in a fun, exciting way. The majority of these students, I was told, did not have an immediate family member go to college, so everything they were seeing was a completely new expeience for them. Seeing how they smiled at the beauty of education made my experience so much more memorable. In addition, I learned a fun activity I can do with my small siblings to get them engaged in something I did over the summer.