By T. Scott Boatright
Learning occurs when biological chemicals activate brain synapses to help create and stimulate the thought process.
Neurons release brain chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, which generate these electrical signals in neighboring neurons. The electrical signals propagate like a wave to thousands of neurons, which leads to thought formation.
A group of Simsboro seventh- and eighth-graders recently became part of that scientific process by focusing on chemistry during a Middle Grades in the Mix program on the Louisiana Tech University campus.
Dr. Kristie Ruddick with the Louisiana Tech Department of Chemistry was part of the team facilitating the day, leading lab safety sessions, facilitated chemistry lab experiments and introduced the students to information about careers in chemistry.
The program is part of an EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant that was successfully funded through a partnership with Ruddick, Tech professor Dr. Bill Deese, and the SCILS Region 8 LaSTEM Center.
Simsboro middle school science teacher Sara Smith led a group of her students that joined students from Bienville Parish and Jonesboro-Hodge to go through lab safety sessions, facilitated chemistry lab experiments and introduced the students to information about careers in chemistry.
“One of the things they did was the students were given a bunch of clear liquids they were given the formulas for,” Smith said. “And the students had to run some tests on them to see how they reacted. So the students used pH paper to check the pH of each, and then the student had to systematically combine each one with all of the other liquids to see what kind of reactions they would get.
“The instructors wanted the students to look for if the mixing would cause the mixes to precipitate, or produce a gas or see if anything would happen at all. The students had to record all of their observations, and when they were finished with that, the students were given an unknown clear liquid and based on their observations when they mixed the unknowns with all of the knowns and figure out which chemical it was.”
Smith said the annual programs at Tech change up to keep fresh ideas being presented to the students.
“One year they had another program — I think it was the first year we went — where the students didn’t go to the chemistry lab, the students got to go to a virtual anatomy lab and play on the lab tables,” Smith said.
“And then they had a combination of a science and arts program where students helped create images for science textbooks and professional science journals and things like that. That was something that I had never thought or heard of and I think it was really cool that the younger students learned that was just another potential job involving science in a way that most people wouldn’t think of.”
Smith said giving the middle school students a sort of “hands-on look” at the college experience is an important part of the program.
“Just being on campus and seeing some of the things happening there really gets the kid’s minds going on what kind of things they could have ahead of them in the future,” Smith said.
“The kids got to do some hands-on work and learned about what Tech’s Department of Chemistry has to offer. The students were presented with the types of jobs studying chemistry could bring them should they choose to go in that direction, and learned the basics and importance of safety in the laboratory.”
