Students spend time experimenting with local scientists
In a lesson called "Oil and Water Don't Mix," some students are applying the scientific process to come to their own conclusion on how best to clean up the results of the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
While scientists, politicians and residents are still talking about the cleanup efforts, seventh-graders at Montgomery Village and Julius West middle schools experimented with cleanup ideas last week when mobile science labs pulled into their school parking lots and set up shop.
To that end, Montgomery Village Middle School students filed into the back of the brightly decorated 18-wheeler and took their places at workbenches lining the narrow space.
"We are going to create little Gulf of Mexicos," Carter told the students, instructing them to pour water into a small container to begin their experiment.
Adam Young, 12, and Devin Bowles, 11, worked together as Carter guided them through the steps of the experiment, reminding them to mark their test tubes and write their conclusions on their lesson sheets.
"It really teaches us, gives us background information, if we want to do this as a job when we get older," Adam said.
Seventh-graders from both schools spent Oct. 8 at the Johns Hopkins University Rockville Campus taking part in the second annual Frontiers in Science program. The early lab visits were to prepare them for the activities of they would be taking part in that day.
"The idea is we are doing so much research here and we want the kids to know what it looks like," said Elaine Amir, executive director of John Hopkins, Montgomery County.
The university gathered 18 biotech research and educational organizations to meet with students and offer them hands-on activities and lab tours during their half-day visits to the campus.
In all, they introduced almost 600 seventh-graders to some of the many avenues science careers can take in Montgomery County, said Robin Ferrier, communications manager at Hopkins.
Meanwhile, back at the lab, Adam and Devin dipped feathers into plain water and watched for a reaction. The water beaded and rolled off. When they dipped the same feather into water with oil floating on top, they had a problem to solve.
Using Dawn dishwashing detergent, oil-eating microbes — a naturally occurring bacteria that relies on oil to provide it with energy — and plain water, they experimented to decide how they would clean up the Gulf. They enjoyed the relevance of the experiment and were ready to discuss their conclusions.
"It was just like ridiculous how long it took to clean [the spill] up and it's still not done. We should have some knowledge of what to do when something like this happens. It's not like we are the first persons to do this kind of experiment," Devin said.
pmcewan@gazette.net