Making science more accessible (and more fun) for children

March 18, 2022

Professor Cara Ocobock saw an opportunity. It was August 2020 and her young niece had asked for an at-home science kit, but the materials Ocobock found too often seemed to treat science as if it were magic. “Science is cool enough,” she thought. “You don’t have to make it magic to make it cool.” The human biologist and professor of anthropology at Notre Dame therefore decided to take the task on herself. Over the next several weeks, she produced a volume of 28 projects children could do at home to learn about and participate in scientific processes. She posted about the volume on Twitter, offering to share a copy with anyone interested. 

The response was overwhelming. Overnight, more than 1,200 people requested copies of what she had affectionately dubbed “Ruby’s Laboratory Manual,” after her niece. Additional requests continued to stream in as word of the project spread. A passionate advocate for equitable science communication and literacy, Ocobock recognized an opportunity to create an educational resource far beyond her original goal. New to South Bend (Ocobock arrived on campus in 2019), she quickly reached out to colleagues at Notre Dame and community members to explore additional ways to distribute the manual and encourage its use. Conversations with staff at the Center for the Homeless, St. Adalbert Catholic School, and the St. Joseph County Public Library confirmed significant local interest in the project.

Those familiar with Ruby’s Laboratory Manual will not be surprised. The highly interactive, evidence-based collection invites children to both see and participate in science in real time. Many studies suggest that experiential activities of this kind are more engaging and memorable than otherwise comparable passive presentations. Throughout the manual, students are presented with an array of visually accessible, fun ways to learn about the scientific method and basic principles of the natural world. Many of the experiments can be quickly conducted at home, requiring only a small number of easily accessible items. Other experiments are more complex, challenging students to explore new ways of viewing their surroundings. Children can therefore quickly use the manual to find a space suited to their circumstances and knowledge, a space in which they can successfully engage with scientific concepts again and again. The manual also challenges students to use critical thinking and writing skills by recording their predictions and observations throughout each experiment.

In an effort to invite children to see themselves in the manual, Ocobock presents each experiment in the context of gender and racial equity. Each activity is accompanied by photos and descriptions of female scientists–many of whom are also people of color–who use the illustrated principles in their careers. 

Even the best designed experiments are worth little without the materials needed to complete them. As Ocobock has noted, while she could directly distribute the descriptions of each experiment, she was concerned that some students would be unable to “access the magnets or the borax or the benzoic acid” the manual at times calls for, adding “if [children] can’t get the materials, what good does it do?” With the support of multiple funding partners, including a Community Impact Grant from the Institute for Social Concerns, Ocobock, Notre Dame graduate student Morgan Munsen, and their team have assembled and distributed more than 500 kits with enough items to complete each experiment in the manual. These kits have made it possible for many marginalized children in South Bend and elsewhere to engage with science in a new, more personally engaging way.

The project continues to bear professional fruit for Ocobock as well. Calling community-engaged work one of the most important parts of her professional life, she recently asserted that her work with off-campus communities “will be far more impactful than any [traditional] research,” adding that her “community outreach will have much broader impacts.” Ocobock’s work on Ruby’s Laboratory Manual has offered an essential entry point into a community she had joined barely one year prior to the project’s publication. She now regularly receives invitations to participate in community-engaged projects and events. What began as a gift for a family member has facilitated the development of relationships and projects on which Ocobock looks forward to building for many years to come.