Students Offer Food for Thought
If peanut butter and jelly geology intrigues your scientific spirit, you should have been at the county Museum of Natural History on Thursday.
Students from a Mid-City school, one of a handful of campuses participating in a national program designed to heighten scientific awareness, were showing off their lesson about how the Earth’s layers evolved.
Foshay Learning Center sixth-grader Trayvonn Lee and his fellow students were explaining how they used white bread for layer one, then stacked on chunky peanut butter, whole wheat bread, grape jelly and rye bread. Puffed rice cereal and raisins acted as seashell fossils and boulders in the completed work.
The displays were part of Public Science Day, in which teams in 10 U.S. cities researched and presented earth science projects, all with the theme of “Our Changing Earth.”
As visitors walked by, Trayvonn, 11, and his four-member team gave a detailed scientific explanation of each layer.
They and other Foshay students had labored three months, in addition to participating in regular curriculum activities, to come up with 20 exhibits.
Foshay, which draws students from kindergarten through 12th grade, features several academies that emphasize science, health and technology. Math and science teacher Mary Lewis got the school interested in Public Science Day, which is sponsored by the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and Unisys Corp. Students picked their own projects from ideas suggested by teachers.
Lindsey Groves, one of the museum’s paleontologists, quizzed the peanut butter and jelly group and said he was impressed with the range of the students’ knowledge. He said the experiment featured a new wrinkle: Usually, university students use a layer cake when they want to demonstrate stratification.
Eric Gideon, 11, drew spectators to his group’s exhibit on ocean ecosystems with a carnival barker’s enthusiasm. “What is happening to the coral reefs?” he shouted.
His team demonstrated humans’ negative impact on the fragile ocean ecosystems with litter-strewn “coral” created from charcoal briquettes, salt ammonia and laundry bluing, among other things.
“They’ve done their research really well,” said paleontologist George Davis, who gave Eric’s group suggestions for follow-up projects.
Student participants received certificates and one-year family passes to the museum for their efforts.
Foshay’s science projects will be on display through Jan. 29 in the Discovery Center of the museum. They can also be viewed on the school’s Web site at www.foshay.k12.ca.us.