Students learn ‘gross’ science
Posted on Saturday, February 17, 2007
Part of the University Days events this week in Fayetteville was a display that teaches anatomy and biology in a way that may not be a part of polite conversation.
It was called "Grossology: The (Impolite ) Science of the Human Body."
"It's really gross," said David Layman, a Prairie Grove eighth-grader who viewed the interactive display.
Parents and teachers also viewed the display, which focuses on some things people may not want to discuss, such as why noses are runny and the reason behind gas passage.
"I've learned things I don't want to know about myself," said Drake Watson, another Prairie Grove eighth-grader.
The "Grossology"display and a mobile exhibit called "The Race for Planet X "have been made available to the Northwest Arkansas community through the UA Center for Math and Science Education's partnership with the Arkansas Discovery Network.
University Days More than 1, 000 K-12 home, private and public school students and teachers visited the UA campus Thursday and Friday for University Days.
For the past 15 years, the event has focused on providing fun, yet educational opportunities to the K-12 educational community to promote science, mathematics and technology research areas on campus.
Featured each day this week was a speech by John Kermond from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who spoke on topics ranging from El Niño to global climate change. Prairie Grove had the biggest turnout for the event, said Lynne Hehr, director of the UA Center for Mathematics and Science Education. More than 100 students, parents, teachers and other adult sponsors from Prairie Grove attended.
' Grossology'"Grossology"is an interactive exhibit geared to students grades three and up. It uses animatronics and imaginative play to explore the good, the bad and the ugly about various aspects of being human, from body odor to runny noses. The Center for Mathematics and Science Education is sponsoring the exhibit, free of charge, at the Walton Arts Center Nadine Baum Studio through April 21. It has been there since the end of January. From the studio, it will travel around the state for the next two years, making stops at each of the partner museums. Sixty children may go into the display at one time. Students learn about everything from body odor to belching - things not discussed in "polite"society, Hehr said, which is why it is dubbed the "impolite science"of grossology. "This is fourth-grade through eighth-grade mentality," Hehr said. "I think it's wonderful," said Virginia Brandt, a teacher of seventh-grade science at McNair Middle School in Fayetteville. She had two students with her at the "Grossology"display. "They want it in their classroom," she said of her students. Arkansas Discovery Network The Arkansas Discovery Network is the first statewide museum collaborative in the country, a network dedicated to making hands-on, interactive museum experiences more accessible to the state's 498, 000 schoolchildren and their families. Six Arkansas museums and the UA worked together to plan the network, but an approximately $ 7. 4 million, five-year grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas made it happen. The "Grossology"display is the first network exhibit.
Arkansas Discovery Network members include:
• Museum of Discovery, Little Rock.
• Mid-America Science Museum, Hot Springs.
• Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff.
• Texarkana Museum System.
• Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources, Smackover.
• Arkansas State University Museum, Jonesboro.
In addition to "Grossology"and other future exhibits, the network is developing a "museum on wheels."
The 40-foot vehicle will travel to rural areas, bringing interactive exhibits to engage girls and boys in engineering skills.
In "The Race for Planet X," which was on display during University Days, students execute assignments in computer-aided design, aerodynamic testing and laser beam splitting to gather information about the new planet.
The vehicle will begin touring the state in the fall. A "sneak preview"of it is available on the UA campus through Feb. 22.
The Arkansas Discovery Network is also providing enrichment opportunities for teachers. Lisa Tice, a local private school teacher, was one of eight Arkansas teachers who attended the Exploratorium Summer Teacher Institute in San Francisco this past summer. They each spent four weeks immersed in the latest inquiry-learning techniques.
Tice, who teaches fifthgrade science at St. Joseph's Catholic School in Fayetteville, was observing the "Race for Planet X"mobile unit on Thursday during University Days. She also brought her students to University Days.
"They loved it. We had a great day," she said.
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