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| Neabsco
Elementary School students watch an FBI Laboratory
chemist perform an immunoassay screening test on urine
samples to look for the presence of drug metabolites.
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What
is DNA? How do the sun and moon affect ocean tides? Why
is the sky blue?
Thanks to the FBI Laboratory’s Junior Scientist Program,
fifth graders at Neabsco Elementary School in Woodbridge,
Virginia are learning the answers to these questions and
more. (Due to time and personnel limitations, the Laboratory
partners exclusively with Neabsco.)
Launched in 2003, the Junior Scientist Program is bringing
science to life for students at the Prince William County
public school, located just 20 minutes away from the FBI
Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. “Our goal is to
help them see the value of science,” says the Laboratory’s
Michael Frady, who spearheads the program. “When my
own kids were little, they would ask me, ‘Why do I
have to learn this stuff? I’m never going to use it
again.’ We want to show the kids that there are people
out there who use science in their jobs everyday.”
During the first few weeks of the school year, permission
slips are sent home inviting parents to enroll their kids
in the program. Laboratory employees are also on-hand at
the school's annual back-to-school night to promote the
program and answer questions.
The Laboratory’s Donna Bestwick, the program coordinator,
arranges biweekly visits to Neabsco based upon the fifth
grade science curriculum. When the kids are studying ocean
tides and currents, the Laboratory’s Evidence Response
Team Unit brings in its dive suits, face masks, and oxygen
tanks and teaches the students about underwater evidence
collection. When they're studying life sciences, scientists
from the Laboratory’s DNA Analysis units teach the
students about the importance of collecting and analyzing
blood and other biological material found at crime scenes.
When the kids are learning about “light” and
the electromagnetic spectrum, the Laboratory’s photographers
show students how the film in a camera detects light and
turns it into the images we see in photographs.
All the while, Laboratory employees use quizzes and dramatic
experiments to show that science is fun. For example, to
demonstrate the dramatic effect of temperature on materials
containing water, a Laboratory chemist dips a flower into
a container of liquid nitrogen, then drops it to the ground.
To the students' amazement, the frozen flower shatters like
glass.
The Laboratory also assists Neabsco staff with the school’s
annual science fair. As students are preparing their projects,
scientists from the Laboratory’s Research unit explain
how their daily work requires them to establish hypotheses
and then create experiments to test them. Laboratory chemists,
biologists, latent fingerprint experts, physical scientists,
and others then serve as science fair judges.
But there's more to the program than science. Laboratory
employees also teach the students about being responsible
citizens. In order to stay in the program, students must
have good grades and good attendance records, and must steer
clear of drugs and gangs.
At the conclusion of the 2004-2005 school year, 104 students
graduated from the Junior Scientist program. During a ceremony
at Quantico, Laboratory Deputy Assistant Director Tod Hildebrand,
Operational Response Section Chief James Sample, and others
awarded each student with a diploma. The new Junior Scientists
then received a tour of the Laboratory, where they met Bureau
scientists and watched them perform experiments.
The program is succeeding not only in raising the students’
awareness of science, but also in making them more interested
in school, say Neabsco teachers and staff. Fourth graders
are already asking their teachers when they’ll get
a chance to get involved with the program.
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photos
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