Reed College
Reed College

Reed College Science Outreach

About the Program

Summer camp students and teachers pose for a picture after completing an egg drop activity.

Program Goals

Reed Science Outreach strives to:

  • Establish long-time partnerships with schools in order to provide access to high quality science education and materials that would otherwise be unavailable to students. We also intend for Reed students to act as role models to encourage students to embrace a life of learning.
  • Engage students with interactive, inquiry-based science education to help students develop an early interest in and understanding of the sciences. Check out a guide to our curriculum offerings here.
  • Provide Reed students with a positive service-learning opportunity in the greater Portland community and the chance to gain critical skills through significant, in-classroom teaching experience and community outreach.

To date, during the program's nearly 30 year history we have reached over 11,000 elementary and middle school students and supported more than 600 Reed student teachers. We work with up to 20 classrooms at Portland Public Schools and David Douglas District. 

"I believe that [S]cience [O]utreach is valuable to everyone who participates. For Reedies, they can explore interests outside of their classes and build meaningful relationships with other students and staff. For faculty, their involvement improves the college’s relationship with the surrounding Portland community and creates more opportunity for the future generation of scientists. The events open to the extended community hosted by [O]utreach were especially effective in making academic spaces more accessible to the public."
 - Margo Schweitzer, spring-fall '23, Neuroscience

How the program works

Students in a classroom using a microscope.

Science Outreach sends teams of 2-4 Reed students into the same classroom once a week for 15 hour-long lessons throughout the school year. The Reedie teachers encourage students to explore concepts through hands-on, inquiry-based activities and limit lecture-style teaching. Because of Science Outreach's team approach, small group interactions are maximized and individual students receive personalized attention. Reed students form a bond with the students that they teach every week and many Reed students go out of their way to rearrange their class schedules so that they can work with the same students for multiple semesters.

We offer both paid and volunteer positions to Reed students. Learn more about opportunities for Reed students here.

We also look to connect with community members looking for student volunteers that can act as science fair judges or mentors, or who are seeking to bring the Science Outreach curriculum to their classes.

If you would like the program to come to your classroom, contact Siira Rieschl at siirar@reed.edu or 503-788-6625 for more information.