There were 33 out of 57 members present. Joe Nash did the “thought for the day” , which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Guests were Jacqueline Boland (guest of Connie Berman); Brian Keys represented the Village and Julie Tye represented Hadley.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Patti invited everyone to attend a special “end polio now” event on September 6^th from 5:30-8:00 pm at One  Rotary Center in Evanston which will highlight our progress in the fight to eradicate polio throughout the world. Patti also announced Rotary day at the football game between Nebraska and Northwestern on September 24^th, at which there is a big book collection initiative for kids under 5 years of age. More information on tickets and book collection will be forthcoming. Heather Higgins celebrated her birthday and she requested that we sing the song (we must be getting better because no one offered any money for us not to sing!)

 

HAPPY BUCKS:  Allie Sarwark , Director of the WYO, contributed.  Barb Tubekis contributed because of 5 of our Club members who volunteered to help the Glencoe Garden Club with their “food harvest” on 9/29.

 

Bernie Michna handled the “dig and grin” telling us about kangaroos complaining about the high cost of drinks in Manhattan and certain Cubs not being able to identify the Lord’s Prayer!

 

After a short video presenting certain options to increase Rotary  membership, David Birkenstein introduced our speaker, Dr. Michael Kennedy,  Director of the Science in Society at Northwestern University, which is dedicated to science outreach and public engagement. He said that education researchers have long pointed out the need for inquiry-based teaching approaches to connect students to real scientists and science environments. Northwestern and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago have partnered to form a Science Club where  Northwestern scientists mentor middle schoolers at the B & G Clubs in small groups to tackle real-world science problems and help youth emerge as more critical thinkers. The emphasis is on STEM (science, technical, engineering and math) experiences and the target group of students is low-income students in the Chicago schools. Middle grade students spend 80% of their time out of school and the project tries to enrich the participants’ time out of school versus during school. The instructors in the program are NW grad students and expert lay persons in the area. 100 youths participate per quarter; there are 50 mentors; a student stays in the program for 1 ½ years; each student is mentored 1 ½ hours per week after school at one of the B & G Clubs; and the students are evaluated on their oral presentation of their projects. This program has greatly increased the interest of  students pursuing a STEM career.  The program receives some support from the National Institutes of Health.  Further information is available by contacting Dr. Michael Kennedy at m-kennedy@northwestern.edu. If you would like to review his power point presented at our meeting, please contact David Grant or Keith Reed.