Splash: A must-have program for universities?

One, get rid of the professors. Two, recruit super enthusiastic university students to teach. Three, allow them to teach whatever they want. Four, make it cheap enough so that pre-college students from all backgrounds can afford to attend. Lastly — perhaps the most important — you must have a well-organized and passionate program leadership team. I am talking about Splash — a Learning Unlimited program in the U.S. which brings middle and high school students to a university campus over a weekend to learn just about anything really. This is a must-have program for all universities especially in developing countries.

Why?

Good for Students

For students, it’s a no brainer. They have the flexibility for taking classes not traditionally found in middle or even high schools. They can take classes about quantum physics, entrepreneurship, the science of happiness, movie making, time management, public speaking, launching a start up, talking to aliens, neuroscience, quidditch — yes there has been a class on this — and so many more.

They get to explore their own curiosities outside the traditional confines of their formal education. Splash provides a fun and relaxed atmosphere for learning since the classes are not graded and — most importantly — they are taught by university students. This is critical as students feel less intimidated and are likely to be more engaged during class.

Easy on the pocket

Splash is also great for parents. Most of the Splash programs charge a small fee between $10 and $40 for the entire weekend including lunch which is a bargain when you consider the average cost of summer programs. Some of the Splash programs are even free and fee waivers are also in place for students coming from families with financial hardships. This is the case at Stanford University where their Splash program costs only $40. Money aside, Splash basically opens the door for parents to give their kids a jolt of excitement about learning and an early exposure to the environment of learning at a university.

Good for student teachers

 It is also great for student teachers. They get to teach whatever they want and also get the chance to experiment with novel teaching techniques. This was my experience at the Stanford Splash when I was a graduate student. I was initially very nervous of the idea of teaching a classroom full of middle school and high school students. I thought teaching high schoolers mixed in with middle schoolers would be difficult especially if you are teaching them about the neurobiology of sleep. Fast forward almost three years later, teaching in Splash was the highlight of the year for me.

The mixture of students across school grades made it challenging but a lot of fun to teach. I tried several of the teaching strategies suggested at the several workshops offered by the program to all teachers. I was and continue to be driven by my passion to share with young students about how the brain works. As a student teacher in Splash, I got to improve my teaching skills and perhaps the most important of all, the students left the classroom inspired. In fact, both teacher and student typically leave the classroom inspired. Splash gives university students an easy way to get some teaching experience without sacrificing a lot of their time.

 Good for Universities

For universities, it’s similarly a no brainer. It is a rather simple and effective way to recruit students. The universities get a chance to showcase a little of what it is like to be a student at their university. I typically got a few emails from both parents and students asking about both the undergraduate and also graduate studies. This suggested the program played an important role in recruitment to some level. At the very least, most of what a university has to do is to open up some classrooms over the weekend. That shouldn’t be too difficult.

Sure, Splash seems like a win-win for a lot of people. But a number of things need to be considered.

 You can teach whatever you want? Not exactly. The Stanford Splash website states that “classes cannot include you or your students doing illegal activities, nor can you explicitly promote illegal activities (ie: How to deal drugs 101) ”. This is important. All classes have to be approved which shows that the leadership team tries to ensure the classes taught are not harmful to the students. So that’s not a major problem.

How about the length of the program? This is a good point. A weekend may not be enough to provide the full spectrum of the typical undergraduate experience. But a weekend is just long enough to provide the spark. And that’s what Splash is all about. Providing inspiration. Of the 1800 students that came to the Stanford Splash in the spring of 2013, a respectable percentage of them were repeat “Splashers”. They keep coming back for more! So, a weekend may just be the right amount of time. Keep in mind that they have short attention spans anyway. Of course there are those summer programs if students seek a longer period of study.

Getting Splash Started at your University

So what does it take to run a Splash program? The number one criteria is good student leadership. The number two criteria is good mentorship for the leadership team. These two elements will prove essential in ensuring a Splash program can remain sustainable over the years. The great thing about mentorship is that there are now 20 universities across 10 states in the U.S. that run Splash. So there is some potential for finding lots of mentorship.

 At the end of the day, I think that Splash or Splash like programs need to be implemented at more universities especially in developing countries. It isn’t in as many universities as it should be, but the important thing is that the number is growing.

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Fanuel Muindi

Fanuel Muindi is a former neuroscientist turned civic science scholar-journalist and entrepreneur. He is a Professor of Practice in the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University where he leads the Civic Science Media Lab. Dr. Muindi received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and PhD in Organismal Biology from Morehouse College and Stanford University respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training at MIT.

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