Mayo Clinic Outreach Project

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Dear friends of women in science,

Take a look at the video here, where Vivien Williams reports on a hands-on science program that is working in K-12 schools. Dr. Stephen Ecker has pioneered an outreach to teachers in middle school including real experiments with zebra fish. He says the project allows teachers to achieve excellence in increased understanding in science. In one school where they work, the number of kids continuing into honors biology jumped from 33 to 90 percent. A group of kids from this program were taken to Washington, DC to meet with President Barack Obama.

The video describes an experiment that involved keeping male and female zebra fish separate for most of the day, allowing them only an hour, at dawn when they usually would mate, to interact. This science fair project for the middle school kids showed that those kept apart most of the day consistently mated more at their dawn rendezvous.

The program has experiments that have worked with 2-3 graders and even in kindergarten. The fact that the students can do real experiments makes them feel like real scientists and gives them some of the thrill of discovery and ownership of a research question that older scientists enjoy. Dr. Ecker says any kid in the program can look at him or herself and say, "I am a scientist."

How does this program compare with middle school science education you have encountered?

cheers,

Laura

3 Comments | Post a Comment

I too have been appalled by my children's experience in science in junior high and high school, particularly the paucity of laboratory work. It was the labs in junior high that got me hooked on science!

As an example, my daughter finished four years of AP science in high school with only a few hours, total, of lab work. In her case I fear the emphasis on the AP test was part of the problem.

However we do it, it is essential that we return experiments to science classes.

From: Marian for Math | July 6, 2011

I know what you mean, Carolyn Z. I ended up taking in some little experiments to my daughter's and son's classes in junior high school because I was so appalled at what they proposed to teach them. I think the teachers were scared of real experimental science. I asked if they'd like to do the little experiments the next year, and they both said, not unless I would come and do them with the students.

From: Reza L | July 5, 2011

I found it quite shocking to look at what my daughter was studying in 7th grade science. This program is so much better it's not even comparable at all. My daughter made models out of marshmallows and gum drops and memorized terms for tests out of a time-worn text book.

From: Carolyn Z | July 5, 2011

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