Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993 TAG: 9306300104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LARRY W. BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FERRUM LENGTH: Medium
\ Carolyn Thomas kneeled near a shaded stream at Ferrum College and picked up a bug on her fingertip.
"Who wants a pet?" she asked the small group of eighth-graders. Twelve-year-old Rick Dortch quickly ran to the professor to get a better look at the nearly microscopic creature on Thomas' hand.
"Can you identify it?" Thomas asked him.
Dortch studied it for a few seconds and decided it was a type of spotted fly. Nearly certain, but not completely, the Martinsville youth promised to verify the fly when they returned to the science lab.
Identifying dozens of different insects is just one of the tasks 30 rising eighth-graders and three ninth-graders face while they study for three weeks at Ferrum College's Science Adventure in Research and Career Exploration from June 13 until Friday.
The summer camp, now in its third year, is designed to expose students from 11 area school districts - from Roanoke to Danville - to scientific research. The students set up research projects in streams, collecting and analyzing data, while working alongside a team of scientists, teachers and college students.
"We want to show these kids what it's like to be a scientist," said Thomas, a Ferrum biology professor and co-director of the camp. "We talk about going from seventh grade to where we are today - our mentors, hobbies and hurdles we had to get over to make us more adamant."
Thomas said the idea for the camp came about when she and others realized the shortage of new scientists - particularly minorities and females - who have been discouraged from going into the field.
"They have the abilities," she said. "We try to bring those abilities out."
Apparently the camp's goals are being reached.
Twenty of the 33 campers are females, and 10 are minorities. Since June 13, the students, divided into three groups, have been mainly studying the decomposition of leaves in mountain streams. Each group is assigned a specific study area: stream nutrients, fungi or insecticides.
"It's like a three-week science-fair project, and that's a lot to handle," said Sarah McCorkle of Roanoke.
"But that's why it's fun," said Shamekk'a Payne of Big Island, "because it's hard."
Dortch, who identified the fly, said spending part of the summer learning about science "wasn't like a walk in the park."
"We're studying the whole food chain of the creek," he said, adding that the camp teaches them a lot about teamwork.
By placing pots and nets strategically around the stream, the campers have been studying the decomposition rates of different items in the stream, particularly leaves.
"It takes a whole lot to do this," Payne said while wading ankle deep in the stream. "You have to find out the current, pH level, temperature and depth of the stream."
Most of the campers, such as Ryan Woodford, an eighth-grader at James Madison Middle School in Roanoke, learned about the camp through their science teachers. The students and teachers both had to fill out applications, Woodford said. More than 100 applications were sent in this year, Thomas said.
Christopher Staples of Martinsville said he was already interested in health sciences when he heard about the camp. He said he's interested in that field because of the "high employment rate."
Though many are interested in science, the campers agree they learned a lot about science in the two weeks they've been at Ferrum. But the average day is not filled strictly with science.
Other activities include field trips, recreation, classes in science philosophy and ethics and career explorations, where guest scientists and professionals in different careers talk about their fields. Any free time, said McCorkle, usually is spent washing clothes or swimming.
"I think it's like a taste of college," said 12-year-old Krystal Woodson. "Every night we have to write in our journal to tell what we did all day."
Ferrum College was awarded more than $110,000 in a Young Scholars Grant from the National Science Foundation to support the camp through 1994. According to Thomas, who co-directs the program with Ferrum chemistry professor Jim Bier, the college provides the equipment and the student helpers.
Thomas said the kids give presentations at the end of the three weeks about their research findings. They also must make a report to rising seventh- and eighth-graders at their school in the fall, she said.
"I've seen these kids change so significantly, I see no reason why I wouldn't want to do this every summer," she said. "I feel an obligation, as a woman scientist, to encourage these kids to learn."
by CNB