Program sends OSU students to lead lab lessons

By Mary Ann Albright
Gazette-Times reporter

Lebanon — As Lucia Collins and Hanna Bauer carefully sliced open an arm on their starfish, they initially recoiled at the smell and the yellowish substance that oozed out.

"It's gross," Lucia said, exploring the starfish's anatomy with her scalpel and a popsicle stick. "It's fun to cut, but it's all gushy."

Lucia and Hanna, both sixth-graders in Carol Stevens' science class at Seven Oak Middle School in Lebanon, soon learned that the golden mush is in fact hepatic caeca, which operates like much like a human liver, absorbing food and secreting enzymes.

Guiding the middle-schoolers through Wednesday's exploratory starfish surgery were Carrie Carson and Missie Blanc, two fellows in Oregon State University's Rural Science Education Program.

Twice a week, Carson and Blanc meet with Stevens' class and one other Seven Oak sixth-grade science group to lead labs and experiments.

"It's something that we look forward to every week," Stevens said. "(The OSU fellows) bring in materials and experts we don't have. They support the life sciences I teach, and they take it beyond."

"It makes science a lot funner," Sydney Hornby agreed. "They always do projects with us."

Rural Science Education sends graduate and undergraduate OSU students in life and agricultural sciences into rural schools to help kids explore their natural surroundings.

"Instead of giving facts and teaching by memorization, we encourage students to ask questions themselves, then do experiments to answer their questions," said Sujaya Rao, assistant professor of entomology at OSU, and the outreach project's lead investigator.

The program is funded by a three-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. OSU completes its third year this spring, and will apply for a five-year grant renewal.

OSU chooses six undergraduate and six graduate students each year for the competitive fellowships. Graduate fellows receive $30,000 for the year, plus free in-state tuition. Undergraduate fellows receive up to $10,000.

The students go into K-12 classrooms twice a week, supplementing the teachers' curriculum with experiments that make use of the local ecology. OSU has fellows placed in cities such as Independence, Falls City, Alsea and Centralia.

"Inquiry-based science is important in rural schools because, especially with recent education funding cuts, a lot of these students wouldn't have the opportunity to know what science can really be outside of the classroom and outside of books," said Blanc.

And Rao noted that the rural students benefit from building relationships with working scientists they can look up to as role models.

"We want them to say to the fellows, ‘If you can be a scientist, then I can too,'" she added.

OSU fellows gain valuable communication skills when coordinating and delivering these lessons. They learn to explain complicated, esoteric concepts in laymen's terms, a crucial tool for researchers, according to program coordinator Devora Shamah.

Carson, a graduate student in animal sciences, sees her year at Seven Oak as a chance to test-drive a career in teaching.

"I hadn't done a lot of science education before, so this was a great way to get my feet wet in a supportive environment," she said.

Blanc, a senior zoology major, enjoys the leadership opportunities afforded by the fellowship.

"I have been put in a place where I can be an example, and help (the younger students) know they can succeed in academics as well, no matter the barriers," she noted.

This week Blanc and Carson may have converted at least one sixth-grader into a budding scientist.

Although initially squeamish at the sight of her starfish's internal organs, Lucia left class thinking dissection is something she might enjoy doing more of in the future.

"I want to be a scientist now," she mused, carefully cleaning up her dissection tray and removing her latex gloves. "I want to do something with animals."

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.