Elementary school scientists present their findings

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Elementary school scientists present their findings

by Peggy McEwan | Staff Writer

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Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette

Casie Der, 11, rubs a plastic dish on the head of Jisu Song, 11, to replicate their science experiment that answers the question, ‘‘How does static electricity affect different cereals?” The girls, both fifth-graders at Mill Creek Towne Elementary School in Derwood, presented their findings to other budding scientists at the Science Inquiry Conference at Montgomery College May 21-25.

Alok Shetty proudly passed around a plastic bag showing the mold that grew when he put a piece of bread in a black box. Then his science teammates displayed other examples of moldy bread, as they explained the science behind growing bread mold.

‘‘It takes a while for mold to grow,” said Ben Stanley, who said that he, Alok and Satchel Clendenis, all 10-year-old fourth-graders at North Chevy Chase Elementary School, originally thought bread would get moldy sitting on a heater.

They found the bread did not grow mold but just dried out on the heater because mold requires moisture.

These budding scientists joined 300 others from 26 county schools for the Elementary Science Student Inquiry Conferences held at Montgomery College at the end of May.

During the presentations young scientists demonstrated which football the National Football League should use to get the longest passes and which liquids form the most gas when combined with Alka Seltzer, along with many other equally interesting and practical experiments.

‘‘The idea is to give the kids the opportunity to ask and answer their own questions, for this to be like a professional conference,” said Mary Doran Brown, a Montgomery County Public Schools science instructional specialist.

The students participating in four days of inquiries — two at the Takoma Park campus and two at the Germantown campus — all belonged to after school or lunchtime science clubs at their schools.

Most had been working on their presentations since winter break, encouraged by teachers specially trained through a grant from the Howard Hughes Foundation to encourage students to go further into science than regular class time allows.

Letting students design their own experiments is part of what the inquiry is all about.

‘‘In the classroom the experiments are directed by the teacher, in the club you have more time to talk about what is a good question, what can you test,” said Stuart Speaker, fourth-grade teacher from Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park.

Samantha Shasanya, fifth grade math and science teacher at Cresthaven Elementary School in Silver Spring brought 18 third- fourth- and fifth- graders to the inquiry. They all did experiments testing sports equipment.

For Mariel Caprioglio-Chase, 10, a Rolling Terrace fourth-grader, being a part of the science club is about ‘‘having fun after school.”

Fun is always a part of experimenting. So is practical application.

The three fourth-graders from North Chevy Chase learned some practical information with their ‘‘Magnificent Mold” experiment

The boys learned that a dark cabinet is the best place to put bread for growing mold and that almost no mold grew on refrigerated bread.

‘‘We did it so we could tell our parents where to put bread,” Satchel said.

This was the seventh annual Science Inquiry Conference and the program works better each year, according to Sandra Shmookler, project manager for the Science Inquiry Conference.

‘‘This year was outstanding,” she said. ‘‘We want students to know the joys of science, this is how it all starts.

‘‘Clearly not everybody will stay interested in science, but if they don’t know what it is about how can they be interested?” Shmookler said.

At least one student did express the ongoing interest in science the week was designed to foster.

‘‘I’m very interested in science, and if I don’t become a baseball player, I might be a scientist,” Ben said.