Students in the Allen County School District’s Gifted and Talented program learned about multiple aspects of science during a recent special presentation by science educator Jason Lindsey with the Hooked on Science Program.
Lindsey met with Gifted and Talented students from the Allen County Primary Center, the Allen County Intermediate Center, and the James E. Bazzell Middle School during the week of January 5. In his program, Lindsey conducted hands-on learning exercises with the students---experiments designed to introduce the students to the reality that science education and skills is a center component of multiple areas in day-to-day life.
“Our goal for the day was to take science beyond the classroom window and to show the kids that science can be anywhere,” Lindsey said. “We have done a bit of everything from making it snow toilet paper to playing with plungers to building Lego cars. This amazing stuff is hands-on science.”
Each of the science activities were designed to bring to life information found in textbooks. For example, Lindsey used Diaper Genie Bags to illustrate the length of the small intestines in an adult human and compared it to the large intestines. The demonstration was part of a discussion on the human digestion system which led to Lindsey demonstrating to students an experiment using the same Diaper Genie Bag in which Gifted and Talented Director Vicki Cooper was asked to blow up the long bag. Students were challenged to form a hypothesis as to how many breaths it would take before Cooper conducted the experience. The experiment thus introduced students to how the scientist method is used to come to a result in scientific research.
Throughout the presentation, Lindsey’s workshop brought into play each aspect of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. Students were challenged to see how each experiment used the components of STEM in coming to a scientific conclusion.
As an example of engineering and bringing all STEM components together, the students were given an assignment---to build a Logo car and then see how far and how fast the car would travel down an incline. Students were asked to work together in groups to design the car, measure the distance the car traveled, and the elapsed time it took the car to descend down the incline. Once completed, the groups “raced” one another in friendly competition. Once the results were determined, students were given a chance to re-design and re-calculate for a second round of competition to see how slight changes in a design would produce different results. .
Lindsey’s presentation touched on many areas including light---a subject in which Lindsey asked students to understand the difference between three terms (transparent, translucent, and opaque).
“Transparent is where light can get through,” Lindsey explained. “Translucent is where light can get through somewhat and opaque is where no light can get through. Which one am I? I’m opaque. What about the window? It’s transparent because light can get through.”
The special program is part of Cooper’s on-going efforts to help enhance the educational opportunities for the gifted and talented defined students in the school district.