Young 'Student Scientists' See Science Come Alive, Thanks to Jefferson Researchers

Thirty first- through fifth-grade science students from the Neshaminy School District are dramatically enriching their scientific knowledge because of a unique teaching partnership with Jefferson research scientists.

Since the beginning of the school year, scientists from the laboratory of Eric B. Kmiec, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and genetics, Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Institute, have been providing guidelines for experiments that help bring science alive for the students. For a unit called "Invisible Life," or the science of taxonomy, students collected microbes from all over the school, cultivated their growth in Petri dishes and recorded daily logs of their observations.

"They conducted their experiments and documented their observations exactly like real scientists would," explains their teacher, Belinda Rice. Mrs. Rice credits Dr. Kmiec, together with her own husband, Michael, who is a pharmacology research associate, and his departmental colleagues with providing the scientific basis for the experiments with microbes as well as for other studies, including the human body, continuing until the end of the school year.

Mrs. Rice encouraged her students to branch out into other learning areas with their new knowledge of microbes.

"Some microbes grew into colonies as big as a nickel, and each was a different color, some actually quite beautiful. The students wrote poetry about their microbes, some wrote prose, and some even fiction. They also drew pictures of them, gave them names and classified them non-scientifically into groups according to their physical characteristics. All in all, they were very much involved in various hands-on ways."

Even more hands-on was the experience nine students shared one day while visiting the pharmacology lab in the Bluemle Life Sciences Building.

Linda Miller, Seema Dutta, Mani Thiagaragan and the rest of Dr. Kmiec's laboratory staff worked together to guide the students through experiments in light microscopy, DNA analysis and protein chemistry.

All three experiments were visual in nature, with the one exploring protein chemistry probably the most striking. Its purpose was to show that leaves change color in the fall because a "green" leaf actually contains several different color pigments such as yellow, orange and red. By "freezing" spinach leaves with liquid nitrogen, then grinding the brittle leaves to extract the various color pigments, the students actually saw by a "chromatography" laboratory process the several different leaf colors.

"Everyone associates spinach leaves with green, but this experiment shows spinach leaves contain orange, yellow and red ­p; the same pigment structure as, say, an oak or elm leaf," explains Mr. Rice.

"I don't know of any other school in our district having the opportunity that Jefferson presented to our students at Samuel Everitt and Albert Schweitzer elementary schools," says Mrs. Rice. "The students are thrilled by Jefferson's interest and involvement and of course hope to return next year. We are all very grateful."