By: Kate Pearce
Homemade bread, mulberry jam, and scrambled eggs are quite a way to start the day. The Voths cooked up a lovely breakfast for us before we headed to the Newton Public Library for our Learning Festival.
We taught 3 sessions, with the event lasting from 9am to 2:45pm. They provided a really nice lunch for us with delicious fruit and the choice of black bean or meat lasagna. We were excited by the turnout of many bright and enthusiastic students! It was really great working with the students in Newton. They asked good questions, and also seemed eager to learn about our experiences as college STEM students. In particular, a 12 year old student named Calliope came up to me an asked me to talk about my major since she is interested in biological engineering.
At 12 years old, I didn’t even know what engineering was, let alone that bioengineering was a subfield. I was really impressed by her confident and curious go-getter attitude. We talked for a bit after the workshops about MIT, college, applications of bioengineering, and ways to learn more in the meantime. We exchanged emails, and I’m excited to stay in touch. Hopefully I can find some cool biotech articles to send on to her!
While I thought Calliope was particularly awesome, all of the students at Newton were really fun to work with. At one point in our workshop, I actually got pretty silly and had to compose myself. Sometimes teaching can be exhausting, but instead I found myself getting positively affected by the students’ infectious energy.
After the Learning Festival, some of us went to the Newton Bike Shop. This local shop was really close to where we were staying, and it turned out to be an awesome stop! The couple that owns it was incredibly helpful, offering tips on bike fit and gear. Before I knew it, we’d been there for over 2 hours. It was cool that the shop was primarily focused on touring cyclists because it is along the Trans Am. They had a big green wall that visitors could sign. It was really meaningful to have local biking experts help us out so generously. We got all of our questions answered, and Bethany and I ended up investing in new saddles to make our riding more comfortable and facilitate proper posture.
Meanwhile, Matthew and Alex got their hair cut by “UFO Man.” This barber really enjoyed sharing about his UFO sighting while cutting their hair.
Later that evening, the Voth family cooked a delicious taco dinner followed by ice cream and mulberry pie from the tree outside. Soon after dinner we dispersed. After setting up a 5am wake up time, we did some reading/journaling/phone calling before getting to bed at a reasonable hour.
It was a full day (aren’t they all?!) in Newton, and we really enjoyed the people we met. It’s crazy that we only have a month left of this adventure!
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