At the end of last school year, Science National Honor Society President Abigail Castro, 12, had an idea to host a science tutoring day for anyone seeking help with their science class or wanted to talk about something science-related. Members of the SNHS tutored 38 students on various science subjects after school on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
“I figured it could be helpful and having done several sciences, I’ve realized talking about science is honestly where it made the most sense to me. Lectures are great, but if you can’t talk about it, you probably can’t understand,” Castro said. “I felt that was probably helpful to whoever came, but even if not, for our members to be able to discuss it is also helpful. Even if you know it, saying it aloud helps you retain it.”
Castro joined SNHS her sophomore year when she took AP Chemistry to find other people in AP sciences who could help her with AP Chemistry and guide her on what sciences to take that would prepare her for a future in medicine.
“I was looking for Science NHS because I knew that the AP sciences weren’t going to be easy,” Castro said. “For undergrad, I expect to be a lot of science classes which is kind of why I got into AP sciences as much as I have. I think for anyone and anything that has science, or even if you’re just looking to test out of it, it’s still helpful to know your information.”
Castro created tutoring day for students to help them understand science similarly to how SNHS helped her understand.
“I figured if more people were talking about it, and also weren’t as turned off because it was difficult, hard, a GPA killer, whatever you want to say about it, they’d realized that it didn’t have to be like that,” Castro said. “Science could be more of a light conversation and there would be people that would help you.”
Advanced Chemistry and AP Bio teacher Donna Kercher sponsors Science NHS and supervised the tutoring day. Kercher noticed most students who attended the tutoring day needed help with Chemistry–reminding her of the difficulty she faced learning Physics.
“It depends on how much grit they have because if they just give up and quit, yeah, they’re gonna hate that subject,” Ms. Kercher said. “If they continue to persevere and overcome their difficulties, and the light bulb goes off then they start to enjoy it and they just feel satisfaction.”
When Castro took AP Chemistry, she often went to the tutoring times to further understand the class. It was those tutoring sessions that made her realize how helpful it is to talk about science.
“I don’t like struggling, but it pays off, and talking about science makes sense. I still remember stuff now. That was the most difficult class, but it was also my favorite and what I plan on majoring in,” Castro said. “If I hadn’t taken AP Chemistry because I heard that it was hard and a GPA killer, I don’t know what I’d be doing. I have no clue. I don’t know if I would’ve learned these same lessons.”
