Volunteers not only teach, but also participate in such activities as college advising, Das adds.

"Volunteers are more than just teachers. They are resources for students, almost like big siblings," she says.

Unlike the volunteers in the elementary schools, who have a lot of latitude in choosing what to teach, high school ExperiMentors are much more constrained by a set curriculum and syllabus, Das says. Current volunteers teach honors chemistry and introductory biology classes in the high school.

Das says high school teachers were initially reluctant to give up classroom time to volunteers. "They offer little freedom, because of AP's and other standard tests," she says.

But Das notes that the teachers were pleased with the volunteers' work this fall. "The competent, outgoing volunteers have done good jobs and have received positive feedback from both teachers and students," she says.

"I cannot say enough positive things about the program," says Elsie Murphy, a sixth grade teacher at the Fitzgerald School. "The volunteers truly connect with the children."

Sawicki says the volunteers' youth appeals to the children. "The kids are responsive to younger fresh faces that they can look up to," he says.

Students engage in a variety of hands-on projects, from constructing thermometers out of shoelaces and cardboard to making lungs out of straws to show the effects of smoking, says Morazes.

The group plans to exhibit these projects at Harvard at the end of this semester, she says.

Sawicki, who describes teaching science to kids as his "life-love," says he feels he's making a positive impact on the children.

The volunteers insist they are not there to upstage the teachers.

"Volunteers aren't to take the place of teachers, who are capable and competent," says Morazes. "The purpose is to supplement."

"They learn the cutting edge of science with the unique perspective of the Harvard student," Morazes says.

Ten ExperiMentors now help train Science Olympiad teams at the Peabody School (K-8) and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

The Olympiad is a national competition in which teams across the country prepare for several "events," with such names as Mission Impossible, Trajectory and Mousetrap Racer.

For example, Mission Impossible calls for students to demonstrate energy transfers by creating a contraption using assortments of blocks, strings and balls.

Students will have to demonstrate their projects at the Olympiad's state-level competition, to be held this year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. At the contest, they will also be required to tackle such scientific challenges as identifying mystery compounds using chemical lab techniques, according to Science Olympiad coordinator Hsien Y. Wong '96.

Wong, an applied math concentrator, spends an hour after school each week helping a handful of sixth to ninth graders prepare for the competition. He says he finds ExperiMentors very enriching because it allows him to communicate directly with the children and get them interested in science.

"According to the teachers, this is the year we have the best chances of winning," he says.