Et cetera : NCCC Cedar 3 at the Cedar Rapids Science Center

Trent Roberts entertaining campers during before care.

David Tieu assisting campers with an activity.

By Trent Roberts

AmeriCorps NCCC team Cedar 3 is working with the Science Center in Cedar Rapids until August 2. The team is assisting with various aspects of the Science Center’s programming for children.

So far, Cedar 3 has assisted children in activities in classes such as catching bugs and building an ant farm in Incredible Insects, creating a film in Movie Makers, pin the fin on the shark in Shark Bait and much more with even more to come! Cedar 3 has also helped prepare classes, assisted with before, noon and after care and a variety of other tasks. It is also time for the Science Center to move out of the Lindale Mall, and Cedar 3 will be there to lend a helping hand with their upcoming move.

“As a non-profit organization, we rely heavily on volunteers and resources like AmeriCorps NCCC to help make our summer camps successful,” said Shannon, Camp Director at the Science Center. “AmeriCorps NCCC adds value in so many ways – by helping supervise and keep children safe, by assisting our teachers in the classroom and helping with a variety of behind-the-scenes projects. We always say that we can’t imagine what we’d do without our AmeriCorps NCCC teams!”

The Science Center's mission is to be an innovative science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-based learning center. They aim to provide exciting and engaging facilities and programming meant to inspire and stimulate the imagination of children, families, school/youth groups and other individuals served. The Science Center's core goal is to deliver informal education through hands-on experiences, encouraging visitors of all ages to grow in enthusiasm, interest and understanding in order to more fully participate in the opportunities of tomorrow.