For the last few weeks, retired scientists from the Maine School Science Volunteers (MSSV) program have come to Lisbon High School, volunteering their time to help the students better understand physical science. Volunteers take a training and orientation program and are then matched up with science teachers in the Middle School and High Schools throughout the state of Maine. These volunteers have many different fields that they teach which include: biochemist, chemist, physicist, medical doctor, electrical engineer, geologist, chemical engineer, mechanical engineer, marine engineer, and mathematician.

In the year 2006-2007 the MSSV program benefited nearly 1,000 Maine students, and had over 1,300 volunteer hours. Most of the volunteers enjoy coming in to give Maine’s students a better education. This Advocate reporter asked Ashley Fournier, a student in Mrs. Jill Denniston’s science class: “Do you like the volunteers from the MSSV program coming in and volunteering their time to educate you?” “I like these volunteers. They gave me a good education, and I enjoy the activities that we did in class while they were visiting LHS,” shared Ashley.

Since the volunteers have been visiting classrooms, students have learned a lot. They have learned about batteries, voltage, lightning, currents, and have even gotten to build motors. I asked Edmond Pelta, a volunteer for MSSV, who volunteered in Mrs. Denniston’s class for a few weeks now: “Do you enjoy coming in teaching classes even though you are retired and have worked in this field your whole life?” “Yes, I have a pretty good time. I think that we should have more people getting into this job field when they get older so we try to educate young people, encouraging them to be scientist when they get older. It is a lot of fun. I enjoy it a lot.”

If you would like a volunteer from MSSV to come in and help the science teachers at your school, you can contact them at www.maine-ssv.org, or call Edmond Pelta at 207-729-5721.