Kids See Science Up Close for a Day

Neighbors of Turtle Rock Elementary School may have been startled by words they heard crackling through a bullhorn Thursday morning. A teacher’s voice declared: “If you happen to get on two feet that means you’re dead and you have to go back to Mexico.”

But the situation was far less dire than it sounded. As part of a science lesson, first-grade teacher Birgitta Glassen was leading students in a mock butterfly migration from Mexico to California.

The “trip” required the kindergarten through third-grade students to hop on one leg, flap their arms and sip nectar through a straw from various cups placed along their way across a grassy field.

“I thought it was really fun,” said 9-year-old Jessica Hatch, adding that she is now considering a career in science as an alternate to ice skating. “But sometimes it gets a little tiring when you have to jump up and down so much.”

The mini-migration was part of the school’s second annual Science Discovery Day, intended to spark an interest in things scientific among young students who get no regular science instruction until fourth grade.

Turtle Rock is the only Irvine Unified school that has a comparable event for younger students, according to Robin Van Vorhis, elementary school science specialist for the district.

The school’s PTA raised about $1,000 for the event.

Teachers, parents and community members taught 19 different science classes during the day on subjects ranging from the butterfly migration to a seminar on reptiles and skeletons taught by Irvine Valley College biology professor Jeff Kaufmann.

“Turtles can swallow their food whole,” Kaufmann told students who gingerly passed around two desert tortoises for inspection, soon to be followed by an even-tempered chameleon.

Although Kaufmann and other educators would like more science instruction for younger students, he said, his experience teaching visiting students at a UC Berkeley museum convinced him that even a single encounter can be worthwhile.