THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607260248
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 74 lines
CHRISTINA MAUPIN was not looking forward to her three weeks at the Tidewater Governor's School for Science and Technology.
``I thought it would be horrible, because I don't really like school that much,'' she said. ``But on the first day and with the first field trip, I found out that this was going to be fun.''
Christina, a rising fourth-grader at Nansemond Parkway Elementary School in Suffolk, was, at 8 years old, among the youngest of 60 local students selected to participate in the regional academic summer program.
The students, all fourth- through seventh-graders from Suffolk, Franklin, Southampton County and Isle of Wight County, met each day at Windsor Middle/High School to study water quality.
``This year, we emphasized hands-on science, making the program as different from their regular experience in school as we possibly could,'' said Howard R. W. Freeman, director of the Governor's School.
Freeman and the four Governor's School teachers chose water quality as a topic that could involve children in active research appropriate to their ages and that could hold their interest with its environmental relevance.
One of the teachers, Beth Folden, who teaches fourth grade at Carrollton Elementary School, said the teachers enjoyed the program as much as the children. ``This is the most fun I have ever had teaching,'' Folden said.
During the school's first few days, the students explored computers and how they could be used in designing, compiling, analyzing and presenting their research. ``I was amazed at what we would be doing with computers,'' Emily Brown said. ``I have worked on a computer a little at school, but here I am doing things on a computer I never heard of before.'' Emily is a rising fourth-grader at Suffolk's Kilby Shores Elementary School.
After an orientation to computers, it was time to travel. Seven field trips took the students to various local sites to perform chemical water testing and to observe small water animals in an effort to evaluate water quality.
``The children are learning how to test water and what the results imply,'' Freeman said. ``They are exploring our impact on water in four different areas: industrial, agricultural, residential and those areas around food processing operations.''
A farmer's pond, a residential lake created from a borrow pit, a lake at Suffolk's water treatment plant at Lone Star Lakes, the Pagan River, the Blackwater River and the Back Bay Refuge were all tested by the students. With notes carefully recorded in individual field testing logs, the students returned to Windsor to analyze their research results during the school's final week.
``We are trying to find out what all this stuff means,'' Virginia Credle said, frowning as she waved her hand over pages of meticulous notes. She is a rising sixth-grader at Smithfield Middle School.
Her project partner, Brittany Butler , a rising sixth-grader at John Yeates Middle School, was surprised that the Blackwater River waters were as clean as they were.
``The name ``Blackwater'' made me think the water would be worse than it was,'' she said.
``The kids always want to think the water will be worse than it is,'' Freeman said. ``But the teachers believe that the water quality is surprisingly good and I have a hunch that is what our final results will show.''
Selection for the Governor's School is competitive. Each of the 123 students who applied were recommended by their home school gifted and talented teacher, submitted a science project for evaluation, and also were observed as they tackled a hands-on, in-class science project. These factors were weighed with their standardized test scores to select 60 participants and 10 alternates. Twenty-four of the participants were from Suffolk.
Bradley Frizzell, a rising sixth-grader at John Yeates Middle School in Suffolk, gave the Governor's School one of its highest compliments when he said that he would love to be in a similar program year-round. ``Here we are working on computers instead of doing paperwork in class, and we get to go on more field trips than we usually do,'' he said. ``I like this - a lot.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by HOWARD R.W. FREEMAN
Meg Eason, left, and Virginia Credle, students at the Governor's
School for Science and Technology, test water samples. by CNB