Summer Science Fun!


Last  year a dedicated team of nearly 30 scientists from CFANS, MSI, UMGC and Macalester College teamed up to create and deliver a fun-filled weeklong summer science event for middle school students. Another year has come and gone, and so too has this year’s delivery of this event. But this wasn’t simply a rinse and repeat in this second year. We analyzed reactions to last year’s delivery and met monthly all year long with the goal of improving what was already a very successful endeavor.

 

What were some of the changes for the second year of this program? In a major change, we carved out 20-30 minutes each morning for Tex Ostvig, leader of CFANS’s Office of Inclusive Excellence, to provide inspirational instruction to the students on leadership development activities. Students responded remarkably well to reflective exercises on how to be a good listener, what are my core values, what are the different forms of group governance and more. These highly interactive activities served to boost students' self image and really anchored them each day as they moved to each new space for instruction. In a program that changed daily by design, Tex was a constant presence each day. And once this initial activity was done, students were emotionally ready to engage with the scientific activities that followed. Check out pictures of Tex with the students in each of the 5 days in the gallery below.

 

We also had a new sponsor for this year’s event, Forever Green Initiative. Many thanks to them for a $10,000 grant that allowed us to provide 7 students-in-need scholarships to attend, snacks, lab supplies, porta-potties, and other incidentals, along with carry-over funds from PepsiCo and Cargill from last year.

 

And once again, many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers that planned this event and delivered an incredible experience for these kids!! Your nimbleness, especially when it rained necessitating plans B and C, were amazing. There is no question in my mind that we have convinced several kids to consider college, consider science, and consider the U of M as a place they want to be in the future. Way to go!

 

Check out a sampling of the photos from this year’s event below.

 

Tex highlights: Leadership activities.

 

Students in a classroom participating in their first leadership activity skills-building exercise
Students in small groups participating in a leadership-building activity
Students in a classroom participating in a leadership activity focused on listening skills
Students listen to a presentation on leadership focused on governing styles
Group photo of participants holding University of Minnesota folders, certificates of their completion of the camp


Day 1. Food Science and Nutrition featuring fresh ice cream and cheese (voted most memorable!)

Students in grades 6-8 wearing personal protective equipment in a food lab
Student wearing personal protective equipment cutting out a cookie shape in dough made with Kernza
Students in grades 6-8 wearing personal protective equipment getting a tour of the University of Minnesota Food Science lab
A group of students in the food science laboratory interactively performing an experiment with red cabbage leaves in different pH environments


Day 2. DNA extraction, sequencing and Mutant fruit flies

Three students examining the contents of their DNA extraction kits
Students working in groups to carry out DNA extraction
A student loads DNA onto a pen-drive-sized sequencer as the other students watch
Students shine red light onto optogenetic mutant flies that perform different actions depending on their mutation profiles


Day 3. Wheat breeding, Plant Pathology, Kernza and the Conservatory 

Students in the process of threshing wheat, blowing away the chaff
Students simulating genetic crosses with ping pong balls negotiating a first-generation cross
Demonstration of the incredible length of the roots of the perennial Kernza in comparison to the annual wheat using a life-sized image on a scroll
Students tour the conservatory at the plant growth facility


Day 4. Dairy barn activities and a walk with the calves

Students weighing animal feed in preparation for feeding the cows a balanced diet
A tour of the St. Paul Campus dairy barn
Two students herding a dairy cow out the dairy barn
Lining up 3-month old dairy cow calves at the St. Paul Campus dairy barn for a “show”


Day 5. Supercomputers and computing activities

Students get a tour of the Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota
An event leader presenting on using computers to link information
Small group of students sitting at tables using what their learned all week for final camp activity
Larger view of students sitting at tables using what their learned all week for final camp activity

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