Getting a Feel for Science : Lab Experiments, Trips Highlight Program for Low-Income Youths

After carefully adjusting the white lab coat that makes her “feel like a doctor,” 8-year-old Maribel Valencia peered into her microscope and inspected a fish specimen.

The youngster wrinkled her nose a bit, glanced at the remains of the perch that was the subject of the day’s scientific experiment, and announced: “I like looking at the insides of animals.”

For Maribel and more than 100 other students from three Santa Ana elementary schools, it has been a summer filled with scientific experiments and field trips, thanks to the Kids Investigating and Discovering Science Program at UC Irvine.

The four-week bilingual program, which gives low-income children the opportunity to learn about science by using the university’s resources, is the brainchild of UC Irvine Prof. Eloy Rodriguez, who launched the program last year.

“Normally, you would never get to dissect a fish in the first grade,” said teacher Amalia Villaran. “The hands-on aspect of the program is what gives value to the children. They touch, feel and make their own conclusions.”

Villaran, who teaches kindergarten at Fremont Elementary School, said students in the program are treated as young scientists while they conduct laboratory experiments in physics, mathematics and chemistry.

“It gives them a sense of value and self-esteem,” Villaran said. “This is important, especially with Hispanic children.”

The program costs $400 to $500 per child, including the expenses of transportation, materials and facilities for the classes, which run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each weekday. The program is funded through a $99,500 grant from the Honda Corp. and a $5,000 grant from Chevron.

In addition to classroom experiments, the group ventures off campus each week. They have traveled to the tide pools at Corona del Mar, to Upper Newport Bay, and to the UC Irvine Arboretum and San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve.

“Normally, in an elementary school science class, you never leave the classroom and just learn things in a book and you forget that it has anything to do with what’s actually going on in the world,” said Jan West, the program’s curriculum coordinator.

“We emphasize a lot of field trips and hands-on activity so they can actually look at things and observe and discover rather than getting bogged down in the detail.”

Music and dance have also been incorporated into the program. The students have spent time working on several large murals filled with images of marine and plant life.

Spending her summer on a university campus learning about science isn’t what 11-year-old Valerie Orosco had envisioned. But Valerie, who will be a sixth-grader at Sierra Intermediate School in the fall, said she has developed a new interest in science.

“I always had a chemistry set in my house but I never used it,” she aid. “Now, I go home and use it and make a mess all over the rug.”

Amarys Rodriguez, 11, said the program has also changed her.

“Well, I’ve been recognizing bugs now and collecting them,” she said with embarrassment. “That’s not something I did before.”

For Maribel Valencia, the program has not only taught her to enjoy science, but also has given her a new career direction as well.

“Before, I was going to be a teacher, but now I think I’m going to be a scientist,” she said.