Atoms and molecules are not things that most 9-year-olds think are exciting. However, Douglas Moore, a third-grader at Cayuga Heights Elementary School thinks "they're cool."
This is an attitude that scientists at Cornell's Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics (LEPP) hope to persuade many more children to adopt. One way is through a new class -- designed to get schoolchildren excited about science through exploratory, inquiry-based learning -- piloted by Lora Hine, educational outreach coordinator at LEPP, and Cornell physics professor James Alexander.
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| As part of a lesson on surface tension, April 9, at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, Jim Alexander, Cornell professor of physics, helps students use a variety of household objects to blow bubbles. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography |
The six-week, after-school enrichment class for grades three to five, called "Atoms For Kids," is currently in session at the Cayuga Heights Elementary School. It uses hands-on experiments to introduce children to topics like "Phases of Matter" and "How Atoms Hold On."
As part of a lesson on surface tension, for example, Hine and Alexander used buckets of soapy water along with a variety of household objects -- lengths of copper wire, kitchen gadgets, clothespins, paper tubes -- and set their students the task of blowing bubbles. While the children experimented with the different bubble-blowing objects, Hine and Alexander prodded them with questions: What shape does something have to be for it to be able to make a bubble? How far can you stretch a soap film? Why are bubbles always round, even if you use a square object to make them?
In another lesson, students discovered how atoms can arrange themselves. They discussed what was happening to crystals they had started growing in sugar water the previous week and recorded their observations in journals.
Atoms For Kids is one of the first ventures of a new educational outreach program at LEPP that, Hine said, "strives to create a bridge between formal and informal education as well as increase the scientific literacy of the general public."
Educational outreach has becoming increasingly important to university researchers in recent years. Concerns about recruitment of future teachers and scientists and a perceived decline in general public science literacy have prompted major research funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, to place a high priority on education and to require outreach activities to be part of the research they fund.
LEPP is in the first stages of building a strong community outreach program. Hine, who joined the laboratory staff last September, has taken on the task of developing ways to link LEPP activities to science education in local K-12 classrooms.
Making particle physics comprehensible to children is challenging, she admitted. "It's hard, at the elementary school level, to talk about it in terms that are correct, yet simple enough for them to understand." But, said Alexander, understanding for schoolchildren is important because particle physics makes vital connections between the microscopic world and the familiar world of ordinary objects.
"The theme of the classes is to get kids to realize that there are things about the world which you don't see, but which nevertheless determine all the structure and features of familiar things," said Alexander.
Do bubble-blowing and candy-making really help kids learn science? That's a tough question to answer, said Alexander. "It's not like we have a final exam at the end to see if they learned it all." Whether or not these schoolchildren remember facts and figures, however, they are learning something important, Hine and Alexander agree: Science is for everyone, not just Ph.D.s in lab coats.
"I think I see some light bulbs going on," said Hine. "They're getting the idea that science is fun and enjoyable and approachable."
In the next school year, Hine plans to take the Atoms for Kids program to Candor Elementary School.
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