This week, we are featuring intern Nick Jenshak.
CEES is lucky to have several undergraduate interns on staff. Over the last couple of years, CEES interns have been working hard creating and executing science lessons to at-risk youth in the Indianapolis area. Through programming at the Felege Hiwot Center, to working in Indianapolis Public Schools 51 and 69, to Service Learning at IUPUI, the interns have been able to gain a unique, hands-on experience with environmental science in an outdoor classroom setting.
Duties of a CEES intern include, but are not limited to, creating new lesson plans according to state standards, successfully executing these lessons, working with the CEES educational trailer, assisting in the CEES lab with research, participating in and leading IUPUI’s Service Learning activites, organizing offices and storage units, and completing paperwork.
Intern programming has included lessons and experiments in environmental and physical sciences. Topics covered include watershed, the solar system, ecosystems, electric circuitry, the human body, robotics, plate tectonics, introductory mineralogy, aviation, and some topics in chemistry.
Each week, tune in to learn more about our interns and their time with CEES and at IUPUI.
Full name: Nick Jenshak
Major: Geology
Year in school: Senior
Hometown: Bloomington, IN
IUPUI/Community Extracurriculars: Nick is a brother of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and Vice President of the Geology Club at IUPUI.
CEES hire date: February 2014
Nick reflects on his time with CEES: Working in the IPS schools helped me grow as an individual. Academically, I grew because it really takes a complete understanding of a scientific topic to be able to relay that information at a collegiate level, and then break it down so elementary children can understand and learn. Personally, I learned how important patience and persistence can be when teaching a new concept to children. Sometimes, we would think we had our lesson nailed out in a way they would understand, but mid-class, we would have to modify it or go into more detail about it. Overall, I think it helped me expand my knowledge on topics I already had learned about and helped me think about science in a different way.