What an exciting time at OST. When I left lab SB255 on Friday I was impressed with all the experiments that were set up. Experiments on plants such as duckweed, lettuce, grass, Wisconsin fat plants and even Venus fly traps. There is also quite a bit of composting occurring. Pond life and water quality studies are underway. There is also a study of looking at eggs as a model for animal cells.
Any of these or other interesting science questions can be researched outside of OST time. Lets say a student would like to test the water from a body of water near their home. That student can take the water sample and bring it to OST to be tested or observed under the microscope to look for invertebrates. Another student might notice a fascinating something growing on a piece of forgotten fruit in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator. That student could bring in the decaying material and isolate “the fascinating something” on a petri dish, allow it to grow, and try to identify whether it is a bacteria, mold or fungus. Any number of opportunities is available.
As if the exploration were not enough, students can log their outside of OST time, have a parent sign the log and bring it to TRIAGE. Each week on each day of OST, the coaches will randomly pick from the logs and one student from each day will receive a gift certificate from a local bookstore.
Lets take a minute to thank the Calvin professors who have become our research mentors. Each day of OST has been “adopted” by a Calvin professor. They have volunteered their time and expertise to help us achieve our goal of conducting scientific research and to share with us their journey as a scientist. We feel privileged to have this opportunity to interact with “real scientists” and want to extend out gratitude. They have already met with us to help us fashion our research question and experimental procedure, and they will be in touch throughout the fall semester to help keep us on track. They will also be available to help us as we evaluate our data and prepare for the research colloquium in January. Representatives from the National Science Foundation will be in attendance as the students present their research and we will be thankful to have the assistance of the professors in our preparation for this meeting.
I am looking forward to this week of OST research. It is also National Chemistry week so our start-up activity will help us take part in the celebration. This year’s theme is “The Many Faces of Chemistry.” There is a national poster contest for those who are interested.
One final note, there is no OST next week – October 29 – November 1. I will be sending a slip of paper home with each student as a reminder. Students may come to SB 255 to make observations or record data from their experiments that week from 3:30 – 5:00 PM any day, Monday through Thursday. I will be in the lab to supervise and sign a log of outside OST time research. Students may come on any day, not just their assigned OST day. I hope to see you there!
Thank you scientists. I look forward to our time together this week.
Coach Eriks