Fourth grader Cory Castillo said he had never heard of solar energy before.
Thatโs until Wednesday after school, when Tohono Oโodham Nationโs Director of Water Resources Selso Villegas and his team visited Los Amigos Elementary School to teach students in fourth through sixth grades about energy.
Villegas taught a group of about 25 children about different types of energy, both conventional and alternative. To help students understand solar power, he had them build solar cars, which the kids were able to keep.
โItโs really awesome because Iโve never made solar cars before,โ said Castillo.
Villegasโ team at the water resources department gives science and math presentations to school children as part of an outreach effort. The department provides the time and equipment to schools for free.
โWe donโt want no credit for it,โ Villegas, who is known to the kids as โDr. V,โ said. โWe just want to help.โ
The team wants to expose students, especially minority students in kindergarten through fifth grades, to science and math in the hopes that a kid will be inspired to pursue a related career, he said.
Los Amigos invites volunteer presenters for its afterschool programs on Wednesdays, said Karina Duarte, an outreach specialist. Tucson Village Farm, the University of Arizonaโs nutrition program has also presented at the school.
โOur goal is just to get our students to experience different learning activities,โ she said.
Nytzenia Acuรฑa, a fifth grader, said she is pretty certain that she wants to become an author, but assembling a solar car and testing it out in the sun was fun, too.
โI think itโs fun because we get to experience how to build them and how they work,โ she said.
Villegas, who has a doctorate degree in a science field, said he himself was inspired to become a scientist through a similar program when he was in school.
Volunteering to teach kids science is a way of giving back to the Southern Arizona community, he said.
โYou never know who youโre going to touch,โ he said.
