Shenango OTA students complete service learning project at West Hill Elementary

Penn State Shenango’s second-year occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students completed their annual six-week OTA service learning project in March at West Hill Elementary School in Sharon, Pennsylvania.Throughout the spring semester, the OTA students spent two and a half hours each Thursday afternoon working with 24 kindergarten through third graders at West Hill helping them improve their printing skills. The enrichment program included both individual and small group activities that were designed to reinforce printing skills while having fun.One particular group project was making exploding play dough, while an individual activity was assembling and drawing a Mr. Potato Head selfie. How might these project help printing you ask? In order for the students to know how to make the play dough at home, they had to copy the recipe for themselves. And after completing the Mr. Potato Head selfie, the students printed sentences to go along with their character drawings.“These service learning projects are wonderful,” said OTA Program Director Marge Pendzick. “They are a win win situation for both our students who get a chance to interact and do real hands-on work with children and for the children that our students are working with. I love to see the interaction. When our six weeks were completed, the teachers and our OTA students definitely saw a change in the children’s attitude toward printing -- the children understood how important it is to learn to print, even when you’re having fun!”For more information about Penn State Shenango’s OTA program, call 724-983-2890.