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Thursday, 31 May 2007 |
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ScienceSouth Outreach Specialist, LaToni Bethea, assists students with proper lab technique.
By Kristen George
DARLINGTON -- About 15 students danced, wiggled and jumped around the gymnasium at Pate Elementary School in Darlington pretending to be water molecules that had turned into a gas.
The children gasped as clouds of dry ice spilled over the sides of a jug and nearly every one of them blurted out the right answer when asked how a balloon full of oxygen would react inside the jug. Nearly all of the students remembered the principles they’d learned about the three states of matter and were able to apply it to the experiment that followed.
This hands-on science lesson was made available to the students at Pate Elementary through a program called ScienceSouth. ScienceSouth is a nonprofit organization that brings science to schools in the Pee-Dee area with the hope that better science education for students will elicit interest in science- and technology-related careers down the road.
“By teaching skills-based science in a fun, interactive environment, we hope to inspire the competitiveness of the next generation of young people by providing learning outside of a school setting,” said Colleen Zillio, the program’s director.
With two mobile laboratories that travel to schools and festivals in the region, as well as in-school programs, ScienceSouth has touched more than 70,000 students in grades K-12 since it began delivering programs in 2003.
In addition to providing skills-based learning to students, ScienceSouth also educates teachers on how to incorporate hands-on learning into their classrooms using inexpensive, every day items such as two-liter bottles and egg cartons.
“Most of our schools lack the modern facilities to provide modern hands-on lab experience,” said John Kirby, superintendent for Latta School District and a member of the Science South board of trustees. “ScienceSouth is like bringing the mountain to Muhammad.”
The importance of providing the schools with this type of resource has not escaped the attention of the area’s business community. Roche Carolina Inc., a pharmaceutical manufacturer, has been involved with ScienceSouth since the program’s inception. In fact, since ScienceSouth doesn’t have a permanent home yet, its offices are housed in Roche’s building. In addition, Roche has provided financial support, as well as in-kind and leadership support, to the program.
“We support ScienceSouth for two reasons, in my mind,” said Frank Cox, president of Roche Carolina. “One, because education is one of our big philanthropy areas, and two, because it’s science. Speaking as a scientist, hands-on learning is without a doubt the most effective method not only for teaching science, but for getting students excited about science. To actually be able to put your hands on something and see science occur has a much more profound impact than simply listening to a lecture. When children build little robots, or construct model rockets and watch them launch, their eyes get as big as saucers.”
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