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Wiggins Street students demonstrate sound science and outline Kenyon College partnership
Summary
Wiggins Street Elementary students and staff presented hands-on science demonstrations and summarized extensive partnerships with Kenyon College at the Mount Vernon City Schools board meeting, highlighting classroom collaborations, field trips, tutoring and volunteer support.
Wiggins Street Elementary teachers and students demonstrated hands-on science activities and described recurring partnerships with Kenyon College at the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education meeting in March 2025.
The presentation showed how Kenyon faculty, students and programs support Wiggins Street instruction through classroom content collaborations, field trips to campus labs and performance spaces, volunteer tutors and paid federal work‑study positions that place college students in the elementary school.
Presenters said fifth‑grade students visited Kenyon laboratories to learn about sound waves, using slinkies, tuning forks and an oscilloscope to connect vibrations to pitch and volume. Wiggins Street teacher Paige Keeley described using “science probes” in class to surface and address students’ misunderstandings before formal instruction. Demonstrations included examples of transverse and longitudinal waves, Doppler‑effect examples and a speaker experiment that bounced a ping‑pong ball to show air compression.
School staff outlined multiple partnership strands: content and curriculum collaboration, Kenyon students volunteering during school events and recess, field trips (including visits to Hayes Hall and campus labs), a dance teaching exchange, coding and prototype testing with Kenyon students, and art projects such as a paper‑flower workshop at the Gund Gallery annex. Staff said the BFEC grant has funded bus transportation for district field trips, including an Antarctic ecosystems program, and that Kenyon volunteers support PBIS kickoff days and classroom activities.
Presenters provided numbers and program details: about 150 Kenyon student volunteers in the fall and 162 in the spring; three paid Kenyon federal work‑study students who each work roughly four hours a week at the school; and a pathway where Kenyon students take content coursework at Kenyon while earning licensure through Capital University to complete field experience at Wiggins Street. Staff also noted tutoring for English‑language learners, volunteer support from MVNU and student organizations that provide seasonal activities such as Valentine’s projects and read‑a‑thon performances.
Board members thanked the students and staff for the demonstration and the program’s breadth. The meeting paused afterward so attendees could meet the student presenters and view materials in the adjacent wrestling room.
