Corridor In The News

SHOWING SCIENCE AT WORK

Sixth-graders visit UF for day of demonstrations

By Nathan Crabbe

May 13, 2009 –It was a light-bulb moment in both the figurative and literal sense.

About 30 students from Gainesville's Lincoln Middle School watched Tuesday as a transmitter produced unseen electromagnetic waves.

Sixth graders from Lincoln Middle School watch as simulated rain and about 100 mph winds strike a small house structure during a hurricane simulation at University of Florida East Campus on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.Moments later they let out an "Oooo!" as a bulb held above the device lit up - demonstrating the kind of technology used in cell phones.

Without the technology, "your parents would never know where you are," said Jeffrey Bindell, a physics lecturer who led the demonstration.

The effort was part of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council's techPATH initiative to promote technology careers to middle and high school students.

While Bindell has done a similar presentation 10 times before for students visiting the University of Central Florida, where he teaches, this marked his first on the UF campus.

He said the presentation aimed to get the sixth-graders engaged in science at a time when it can make a difference in their future proficiency.

"What we're trying to do is show them science is interesting," he said. "If you do the math and science now - in the sixth grade - you can have a career that's fun and makes money."

International measures show U.S. students are lagging behind in math and science. In one assessment, 15-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th in math and 21st in science when compared with other nations.

President Barack Obama is pushing to boost interest in science among young people. In a speech last month at the National Academy of Sciences, he challenged researchers to visit classrooms to help students understand the role of science in shaping their world.

Math & Physics Day at UF had the same concept - only it brought students to a campus full of such researchers. Bindell used magnets, electronic devices and other gadgets to demonstrate the laws of physics. Students ended the day at UF's giant hurricane simulator.

The 11- and 12-year-old students gleefully took part in the presentations and mostly stayed in rapt attention throughout them. Tillissa Rawls, 11, said the demonstrations showed that science didn't have to be hard.

"They can make it fun to learn stuff," she said.

Several students said they were interested in careers in the sciences, mainly in medical fields. Shmonica Hammonds, 12, said she works hard at math because she wants to be a registered nurse.

"You have to be good at math to be an RN," she said.

Vicki Morelli, a coordinator of techPATH, said better education in math and sciences is needed for emerging fields such as biomedical technology. The universities of Central Florida, Florida and South Florida are joining in the effort to attract high-tech industries to the 23 counties in the region.

"We can't do that unless we have the work force," Morelli said.

The group hopes to continue bringing students to UF for the demonstrations. Lincoln math teacher Margaret Chodosh said the school lacks technology, and she appreciated the chance to show students science at work.

"This is such a great opportunity for them to see a real-world experience," she said.

She said it also fit within a goal of Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, to get students to visit a college campus between the fourth and sixth grades to help motivate them to attend college.

"I can't wait to e-mail Arne Duncan and tell him," Chodosh said.