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Suburban Advertiser - July 21, 2005
Summertime is Science Time
GlaxoSmithKline Program is Hands-on for Kids
By Alexis Grilli
EXTON-A group of kids, eager to dissect flowers, arrived at the Chester County Library’s (CCL) Exton location last Thursday morning. They were attending their final class in the GlaxoSmithKline Science in the Summer Program (SIS).
SIS, now in its 19th year, has introduced over 74,000 students from the greater Philadelphia area to science. Through classes held in local public libraries, the program gets kids excited about studying science with hands-on experiments. This year, 142 local libraries in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties will participate in the program.
Classes offered in Chester County this year focus on bioscience. The bioscience course is being offered in 18 public libraries throughout the county. The course is comprised of four 60-minute classes given over the course of a week. It is taught by certified teachers to groups of 15 students in two ages groups: those entering second and third grade and those students entering fourth through sixth grades.
Students at the CCL ignored the sunshine coming in through the windows to give their attention to teacher Andy Virtue. They had spent all week performing experiments that taught them to use a microscope to observe a variety of cells. They were anxious for the culminating project: to dissect a flower to study its different parts.
Virtue, a teacher at Springtown Lake Middle School in Media, first led an active discussion about the flower and its many parts. Then he handed each boy and girl their own flower. While slowly dissecting their flowers, each student drew and labeled each component and its purpose. The boys and girls tapped pollen from their flowers and, with competency, viewed them under their microscopes.
After cleaning the remains of the flower experiment, the students were each handed back their own Petri dish. Earlier in the week they had prepared radish seeds for germination. As exclamations rippled throughout the room about the occurrence of growth in the dishes, Virtue explained that they were looking at the plant’s taproot. The class then brainstormed different experiments they could do at home with their germinated seeds.
The hands-on approach clearly worked with this class, which remained on task and interested throughout the entire hour.
“It’s a great program,” said Virtue, now in his fourth year with SIS.
Students at CCL were sent home with a certificate acknowledging their completion of the course, goggles for at-home experiments, a booklet full of labs and piqued interests.
When Virtue asked his class, “how many of you like biology now,” his response was a sea of raised hands.
Before the students left they were given many suggestions as to how they could learn more about science. The library had a display of topical books ready for checkout.
Courses will be held at the Malvern Public Library from July 25-28, a.m. and p.m. Call (610) 644-7259 for registration information.
Alexis Grilli can be reached at agrilli@waynesuburban.com or at (610) 363-2815.
Reprinted with permission from the Suburban Advertiser.
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