Science Comes Alive for Middle Schoolers

More than 360 middle school students were able to explore the universe, solve crimes, build mini-racers and medieval defense mechanisms, and win prizes in a math game show—all thanks to Science Alive 2011 at on Saturday.

The 10th-annual event at Gavilan is designed to open kids up to future careers in science, thanks to a series of hands-on workshops and demonstrations held with the help of the Gavilan College math, engineering and science achievement program, the college’s math department and the Gavilan College Educational Foundation.

Students from the Gavilan College District, which includes Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill, Hollister and Aromas, were invited to the conference, which offered everything from magic with physics to looking inside the human body. They could choose from among 22 workshops.

“It was so cool,” said Daniel Villegas, 12, a student at Rancho San Justo Middle School in Hollister, who said his favorite workshops were “Starlab Planetarium” and “Let’s Make a Deal!”

In the game-show-style “Let’s Make a Deal!” youngsters used math to figure out such puzzles as how many blue M&Ms were in a bag, with prizes going to winners.

Twelve-year-old Jackie Rodriguez of Hollister’s Spring Grove School said her favorite activity was “Come Chroma Key With Me,” in which students could interact with “green screen” images in Gavilan’s television studio.

“I really like science,” she said. And someday, Rodriguez said, she could picture herself having a career in a scientific field.

Other popular workshops including “CSI: Where the Evidence Never Lies,” in which students used science and deductive reasoning to solve a crime; “Build a Hovercraft,” where they could construct a real working craft that travels on a cushion on air; and “The Secret Life of Strawberries,” where they learned to extract DNA from the aromatic red fruit.

Other workshops allowed kids to dissect a cow’s eye, build a mini-racer from household items that included a mousetrap and a CD, make 3-D fractal sculptures, design a medieval defense machine called a trebuchet and launch hot air balloons.

After the workshops and a lunch break, participants were able to enjoy “The Physics Show,” with Foothill College physics instructor Frank Cascarano demonstrating some of the amazing ways that physics affects everyday life.

The day of activities took a lot of effort and coordination on the part of Gavilan College teachers and students, as well as volunteers and assistance from UC Santa Cruz, Foothill College, Schmahl Science Workshop, San Jose State University, CSU-Monterey Bay and the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.

Conference organizer Hope Jukl, a mathematics instructor at Gavilan, said Science Alive is now such a popular event that there’s usually a waiting list of students who want to participate.

“The first three years were horrible, then it took off like gangbusters,” she said.

The whole idea, Jukl said, is to get sixth- through eighth-graders thinking about careers in science now, before high school begins, and to show them a range of possibilities. Science Alive’s intent is to help middle school students to connect with science in a college setting. 

That’s because these future scientists are necessary to help further technology and science in the United States—there are many jobs, and the worry is that there won’t be enough qualified people to fill them, Jukl said.

“We’re very attuned to this need,” she said.

The MESA program at Gavilan College is an active one, with many students going on to four-year universities and taking up careers in science, engineering and mathematics. MESA, a national program, offers chapters at K-12, community college and university levels, with special academic support offered to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

MESA is considered one of the nation's most effective community college programs to increase educational opportunities and improve achievement for Latino students. It has been recognized by the White House and the National Science Foundation for mentoring underrepresented students.