Triple Helix

Wordpress Image Gallery

Twenty-four eighth grade students from North Albany Academy, a K-8 school in the Albany school district, visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. They participated in four major themes, “What is college?”, “Smart Lighting”, “Turning Ideas into Reality,” and “Tour of campus.” 3Helix fellow, Chris Shing with help from teacher pair Kerry Welcome organized the outing. The goal of the day was to enhance student’s awareness about higher education opportunities through demonstrating examples of cutting-edge research impact and by identifying associated career paths . A student life panel consisting of four current RPI students spoke about their college experience and answered questions.

Student Agenda

Presentations:
Welcome to RPI, North Albany Academy!
Jobs Counts
Translating Ideas into Reality

Handouts:
How to make Bucky Balls (aka Hexastrip Weaving)
Additional Activities and Online Resources
Preparing for College

Feedback:
Feedback and comments on activities
Read more in fellow Chris Shing’s blog

At the end of the visit students were asked to fill out an exit survey (included in Appendix A).  Of the 24 students who came, 15 students responded to the survey.  Survey Responses from NAA visit.

While not quite a Holiday party, our acids and bases party was just as fun. The Science club students all brought in food items and soda for the party, and although it made a bit of a mess, it was well worth it.

The challenge remains getting the students from lunch, up to the classroom, the activity started and finished, and all leavings cleaned up in just 30 minutes. Not easy, but definitely fun.

One of the most successful activities that we were able to bring from the laboratory into the middle school class room was a lesson plan and activity on bacterial cultures using agar plates. Agar plates are nutrient rich gelatins that, under sterile conditions, allow for the formation of small, bacterial cultures that are useful in helping scientists isolate bacteria of interest. However, in the classroom, our experiment was anything but sterile. Instead, the students were encouraged to touch the plates, both before washing their hands, after washing their hands, and after cleaning their hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. The students also took samples from different areas of the room, such as door knobs, pencil sharpeners, and desk spaces, to test the cleanliness, or lack thereof, of each area.

The agar plates were returned to the laboratory and incubated for two days. The plates were returned to the students thereafter, where the students were able to compare bacterial growth after different degrees of washing, as well as the plates with samples from different areas of the room.

How did the kids react to it?

The kids absolutely loved this activity. Perhaps they didn’t fully understand the complete background of bacterial growth on nutrient rich gels, but they certainly understood the importance of sanitation, as well as how dirty some common areas of the world can be.