Cabrini High series shows how fun science can be

Tired of hearing so many of her incoming eighth graders complain that science was “boring,” Ann Smart decided it was time for a preemptive strike.
In 2008, the Cabrini High science teacher launched “Super Science Saturdays,” a monthly series designed to make scientific principles more accessible and appealing to girls in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

“All the subjects are exciting to most students when they are in the younger grades, then somewhere in upper elementary school, a lot of the girls start moving away from science,” observed Smart, a 32-year teaching veteran. “I wanted them to come in (as eighth graders) thinking, ‘Science is cool! We’re gonna do good stuff!’” Smart said. “I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to get the young ones to see that science really can be cool.”

Series offers six sessions
Divided into themes ranging from cellular biology to physical science, the Saturday-morning series takes place October through March inside Cabrini’s well-equipped chemistry and biology labs. After being introduced to the morning’s theme – usually through music, singing and the presentation of a related video – the participants break into groups to cycle through five or more hands-on stations manned by Smart and Cabrini student-volunteers.

Fledgling sleuths
Last school year, Smart’s smallest group numbered 27 girls; the largest turnout – for the February installment “CSI Cabrini” – had 52 girls solving a fictitious burglary with the help of real techniques used in forensic science.

“A student had broken into my file cabinet and had stolen my biology exam,” said Smart of the “crime scene” encountered by her young investigators. “I had four suspects, there were footprints on the floor, and the perpetrator had cut herself when she opened up the file cabinet. There was a dripping of blood and a note on the floor (written by the burglar) that had missed the garbage can.”

The CSI novices dusted for fingerprints, analyzed handwriting and footprints, used ink chromatography to determine which of four pens had been used to write the note, and performed presumptive blood tests on samples of artificial blood and blood from a store-bought turkey.

Smart said the morning’s “coolest” activity was when participants spit Gatorade into a test tube to extract samples of their DNA. The resulting white clump – each participant’s real DNA – was placed in a necklace medallion to take home.

“A special soap is added (to the expelled Gatorade) that breaks the cell and nuclear membranes apart,” Smart explained. “Then you put cold ethanol on top, and the DNA kind of creeps up into the ethanol. Then you can suction up the DNA.”
During “Anatomy Academy” – the Halloween-themed October session – the girlswatched a video on bones, sang a bone-themed song, passed around skeleton models and dissected owl pellets.

“Owl pellets are (produced) when the owl eats his whole mouse and then regurgitates the bones and the fur – you can take all the bones out and reassemble the skeleton,” said Smart, who also had her students glue down and label the parts of their reassembled skeletons.
Another popular session is December’s “Scientific Christmas,” in which the girls watch a video on the science at work in Santa’s workshop and make a few toys of their own. For example, making “goop” out of glue, borax and water introduces them to the behavior of polymers, while a musical ball outfitted with electrodes provides a fun way to learn about electricity. Palm pipes are played during a lesson on sound waves, and a bracelet-making activity using sun-sensitive beads helps Smart to teach them about ultra-violet radiation.

Science can be a real ‘blast’
“I like to see all the expressions on the kids’ faces when they see how fun science is,” noted Sarah Heraty, a Cabrini freshman who began attending Super Science Saturdays as a St. Charles Borromeo fifth grader and went on to become one of Smart’s student assistants.
The week before “Solid Science” – the program’s chemistry component probing the behavior of solids, liquids and gases – Sarah tested homemade rockets to determine if Alka Selzer or baking soda made the best rocket fuel.

“When you can demonstrate things for them, it helps them a lot,” Sarah said.
Although they are always encouraged to practice good science, participants are never chided when they make mistakes – as in the time one student accidentally spilled the warmed soap used in the making of plant- and animal-cell models.
“They pour the soap into plastic containers and then they have to arrange all the organelles,” Smart said. “They use a pearl for the nucleus, some seed beads for the ribosomes, a piece of yarn for the endoplasmic reticulum, green beads for the chloroplasts and gold ovals for the mitochondria,” Smart said, adding that participants also get to personalize their models by adding the scent of their choice.

“After (the model) hardens, they get to take it home and use it as soap – with a warning not to let the organelles go down the drain!”
The program is open to girls in grades four through six regardless of their school of enrollment. A fee of $10 per session covers the cost of supplies. To learn about the schedule for the 2011-12 school year, call Ann Smart at 482-1193 or e-mail her at [email protected].
Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].