'Adventure in Science'
Science Education Program Marks 12th Year, Recruits Teachers

Many scientists can recall a single teacher, or a special course, or a dramatic experience that awakened their curiosity in science. If you would like a chance to inspire a child with the fun of experimentation, Adventure in Science (AIS) is for you. This program, beginning its 12th year at NIH this fall, gives local children ages 8-11 hands-on experiences in a variety of projects with volunteers from NIH guiding the way. Meeting on Saturday mornings in Bldg. 10, you can lead AIS children in activities like exploring the inside of a frog, launching a model rocket, constructing electronic circuits or isolating DNA from a strawberry. Or, you might devise your own creative experience to engage a child's scientific curiosity.

Sruti Uppuluri (l) and Katie Quinn identify anatomical landmarks of a sheep brain.

Volunteers can present sessions related to their research specialty, or can choose activities that they found exciting when they were young. Especially popular are sessions in which kids play an active role and get to take home a product of their experiments. Team or solo teaching is possible. Instructors can teach a single class one Saturday, or may volunteer as often as they like.

If you are interested in volunteering to teach in the program, contact Peter Kellman (301) 496-2513, kellmanp@nhlbi.nih.gov or Ed Max (301) 827-1806, max@cber.fda.gov.

If you are interested in enrolling your child, you can request forms from the 4H office at Montgomery County Cooperative Extension office, (301) 590-9638. To keep classes small, the number of children in the program is limited; children are accepted in the order that they apply, so fill out and return application forms promptly.

AIS students (from l) Teja Nagaradona, John King and Srinidhi Muppalla use a Geiger counter to locate radioactivity in a smoke detector.

AIS adventurers explore the sublimation of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice).