Schools

Aldama Science Room Gets Organized with Help of Local Volunteers

Aldama Elementary School had a treasure trove of unused science equipment that wasn't being put to use, until they called on local clutter destroyer Nonnahs Driskill.

Boxes of microscopes.

Stacks of beakers and measuring cups. 

A veritable cornucopia of plastics and glasses and Full Option Science System (FOSS) kits. 

Find out what's happening in Highland Park-Mount Washingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Stacks on stacks on stacks of them sat unused in a storage room at Aldama Elementary School, waiting to be discovered by Principal Paula Cordoba. 

"There were piles and piles of things not being used, and that drove me insane," Cordoba said. 

Find out what's happening in Highland Park-Mount Washingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Across Aldama's campus, in a classroom that was being used for storage, Cordoba envisioned a science center, where teachers would conduct experiments with the long neglected equipment sitting in storage. 

But the school needed someone to organize it all. 

Aldama teacher Marlene Olivarez said that, at first, the burden for the time-consuming task of organizing all the materials had fallen mostly on teachers and parents.

Aldama PTA co-Vice President Ceci Pascuzzo and parent Angelina Badillo took the lead on the project by forming the Science and Math Committe. Together, they called on volunteers and putt in hours of work transferring materials and organizing them.

As the arduous project lagged on, a local volunteer and organizational expert, Nonnahs Driskill, was called in to help complete the job.

Driskill, who owns Get Organized Already, a Northeast Los Angeles business that helps people reclaim their homes and offices from the grips of clutter, has been organizing a small but dedicated group of parent volunteers who are putting the science equipment in its place. 

She's doing the work pro-bono partly because it's what she loves to do and partly becuase there's no way she could have walked away from the mess that had accumulated in Aldama's would be science room. 

"I couldn't just leave them with this mess," she said. 

There's still quite a bit of organizing left to be done, Driskill said, evidenced by the many boxes of scientific detridous that were stacked atop tables in the science room. However, it's also clear that Driskill's organizing efforts were coming to together. 

The cubby-hole closets that line the room had been neatly rearranged and labeled, with the most important items being placed at the average fourth-graders' eye level. Complete FOSS kits had been stored in the closets, while the incomplete ones had been salvaged for parts, which were in turn stored and labled.

As the science room comes together, Cordoba foresees a not-to-distant future where teachers will have easy access to the school's scientific supplies and a place to make use of them.

"What we would love is for parents and volunteers who have a specific expertise to come in and use this room for demonstrations that teachers can then take back to the classroom and use to build lessons," Cordoba said. "The sky is the limit." 

This article was updated on Wednesday morning to reflect the contributions made by Aldama PTA members Ceci Pascuzzo and Angelina Badilla.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Highland Park-Mount Washington