Selling students on science

CSM hosts St. Michael's fifth-graders to showcase careers in technology

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photos Brady Hobbs, a student in Melissa Molitor's fifth-grade class at St. Michael's School, watches a corona break down through an ionized channel and how his fingers influence its path during a science and technology career exploration day last month at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown campus. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Zachary Hill, left, and John Fore watch a light string whirl and change shape when the ends are manipulated at the science and technology career exploration day at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown campus. CSM is planning similar events for all fifth-grade classes in St. Mary's County public and private schools in the coming years to encourage students to continue studying science and math through high school and into college. Click here to enlarge this photo Click here to enlarge this photo Click here to enlarge this photo

"Light travels about 30 times back and forth from Maryland to California — in just one second," said Jack Nial, an engineer working for the Navy in Indian Head.

Awe travels even faster.

The students from Melissa Molitor's fifth-grade class at St. Michael's School in Ridge were visiting the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown campus on May 1 to learn about careers in science and technology, when Nial offered one fact after another.

Then he unveiled the props.

The students gathered around plasma balls, illuminating discs and whirling light string.

While attending scientists might say they were watching a corona breakdown through an ionized channel, the students saw colorful electrical tentacles that moved from the core of the plasma ball to the spot where their fingers touched the outer globe surface.

"Now we're going to raffle these off," Nial told the students. Not only did some students leave with large props, but every student walked away with some light source prize.

"We wanted to do what we could to get kids interested in science," said Nial of his involvement with local Navy engineers Steve Smith and Shirley Delrosario, both from King George County, Va., Nial's longtime friend, former boss and engineer Vince Hungerford of Charles County and Nial's wife, Jean, who donated her time driving the students to and from the event.

"We wanted to take some of the dryness out of science and give the students a multi-sensory experience."

"This has been awesome. We never expected all this," said Molitor of the math, physics and nursing exhibits, the gift bags and the lunch of pizza and subs.

"This is the best day of my life," said Brady Hobbs, winner of a plasma ball.

Earlier in the day, CSM mathematics professors Steven Hundert, Charlie Walsh and Susan Strickland led the students through a hands-on graphing exercise that required the students to actively plot graphs using their own body's motions.

"We projected a few graphs on a screen," Walsh said. "With a program called Ranger and a motion detector plotting their every step, the students had to try to walk the identical graph line they saw displayed on the screen. If they did it perfectly, the graph line and the line their path made would create just one graph. It is very hard to do, and none of the students walked the graph line perfectly, but they had a fun time trying."

The students also learned about graphing time and motion. Using a motion detector to follow a ball, the students could see that although the path of the ball could be straight up and down, the graph, which incorporated time as an axis, created a big arch, Walsh said. The students also participated in creating a bar graph by lining up according to spring, summer, fall or winter birth dates and a pie chart by forming a chronological birth date circle and using yarn to separate the seasons.

The afternoon nursing program gave the students an opportunity to explore many of the college's simulation models. They drained fluid from a simulated wound, checked patient heart rates, took the temperature of a nursing student and donned paper gowns, masks and latex gloves — with a little help.

The nursing portion of the visit was organized by CSM nursing professors Rose Miller, Annette Ragland and Gail Yearick and CSM certified nursing assistant students manned the different stations.

The day began with welcoming remarks from CSM President Brad Gottfried. It ended with a presentation of college acceptance certificates for the Class of 2016 to each fifth-grader by F.J. Talley, vice president of CSM's Leonardtown campus. Some students accepted their awards while still wearing their yellow protective gowns and blue gloves from the nursing demonstrations.

"Events like these are possible because our faculty and our community place a high value on student excitement and success in science and technology," Talley said. "Dr. Gottfried put the word out that CSM wanted to organize events such as this for Southern Maryland fifth-graders and our faculty and Jack [Nial]'s group stepped forward."

CSM's Leonardtown campus plans to host science and technology events such as this for all county fifth-grade classes in the future.

For information about CSM, call 240-725-5499 or visit www.csmd.edu.

This report was submitted by the College of Southern Maryland.