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Bucks County Courier Times – July 14, 2003
Students in the Science in the Summer Program Conduct a
Myriad of Experiments – and Have Fun While Doing It.
By Denise Clay
“How many newtons does it take to lift a 100-gram weight?”
That was the question science teacher Rosemary Carr asked 13 kids gathered around a table in the Yardley-Makefield branch of the Bucks County Library last week.
The kids, all participants in the Science in the Summer program, went to their work areas. In groups of two or three, they began their experiment about newtons, the scientific term for the force needed to move an object. They had to move a 100-gram weight using a fixed pulley, a moveable pulley and a combination fixed and moveable pulley.
Wearing safety goggles, the groups put together the various pulleys, and put the weight at the end of a metal hook the size of a house key. A spring balance recorded the newtons and the students recorded their findings on worksheets.
After they finished the experiments, Carr went over their findings and helped them understand that they had different numbers because the result of scientific experiments can change. “There are no wrong answers,” she said.
This is the kind of experiment done in Science in the Summer, a free four-day program at six branches of the Bucks County Library this month.
Bucks County kids will learn about screws, pulleys, levers and inclined planes—among other things. Although the Yardley-Makefield class ended Thursday, there will be classes at other Bucks County Library branches throughout the month.
GlaxoSmithKline scientist, Virginia Cunningham founded the program 17 years ago in Lower Merion, said Jean Glenn, director of community partnerships, community outreach and humanitarian work for the firm’s Pennsylvania region.
Cunningham financed the program herself as a way to give children more of a background in science, Glenn said. Eventually, GlaxoSmithKline began financing the program to help out, she said. About 62,000 students from the Philadelphia area have participated in the past 16 years, Glenn said.
The program also gives students the desire to continue studying the sciences, Carr said.
“[Program organizers] want to help students continue their interest in science,” she said. “We’re building on their natural interest and curiosity about it. We focus on the skills they’ll need, like data collection, the vocabulary, and using their observation skills. These skills they’ll use across the curriculum.”
According to a survey conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the program has helped a large percentage of the elementary students that take it do better in science classes. The survey also shows that 52 percent of the Science in the Summer participants who are currently in high school plan to study science, math, engineering or the health sciences in college.
Gerald DeNoia, 16, of Jamison, took the classes when he was an elementary school student. He now helps teach the course. He credits Science in the Summer with helping him decide to be an engineer when he graduates from high school next year.
“We learned a lot [in Science in the Summer],” he said. “The teachers try to make it interesting for the kids.”
Representatives of the AAAS select the teachers, Carr said.
The program is available in public libraries in Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Delaware and Chester counties in Pennsylvania, said Mark Sahl, program spokesman.
A library in the Pittsburgh area is trying the program for the first time this summer.
GlaxoSmithKline will spend about $400,000 to administer the program and will also donate money to the participating library systems to supplement their science sections. About 6,500 students in the greater Philadelphia area will participate in the program this year. About 900 students from Bucks are taking part.
Students are selected through a lottery at the local library or on a first-come, first-served basis, she said.
Thirty teachers across the region will show students chemistry, paleontology, the plant and animal sciences and the physical sciences as part of the program.
It has four weekday sessions of about 15 children apiece, Carr said.
As for the students, “It’s a great way to spend the summer,” said Alex Buben, 11, of Yardley. “You learn stuff that you can use in school. When the teacher asks a question about things, you can raise your hand because you know the answer.”
Julia Pettiacord, 9, of Yardley, said she liked the course so much she came back this year to learn more. “I took it last year and learned about chemistry,” she said. “It was cool to learn about using levers to move things.”
Mary Rago’s daughter, Emilie, 9, is taking the course. The Yardley woman said her daughter appreciates the chance that she was getting to learn science from those who use it every day.
“You don’t usually get an opportunity to have someone from a large company come in and work with kids in a small classroom setting,” Mary Rago said.
Reprinted with permission from the Bucks County Courier Times.
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