WHAT A HISSER! Yardley biologist uses insects to get kids excited about science
Some students squealed as a cockroach crawled up their arms, others gazed at the brown insect with wide eyes. The hissing cockroach was part of a science career day given by scientists and other volunteers from FMC Corporation’s Innovation Center in Ewing, N.J., and its corporate headquarters in Philadelphia.
About 15 FMC volunteers traveled to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia to share science experiments with 1,200 sixth through eighth grade students. The goalW to get students excited about science and inspire them to pursue careers in chemistry, biology, agriculture, technology and engineering. Called STEM Career Days (Science, Technology, Engineering and MathF, the event was funded by a $25,000 grant from FMC.
Research biologist Bruce Black of Yardley showed wuri Berry, an 8th grade student IrRP ThRPDs 0iIflin (lePenWDry SFhRRl, how a cockroach breathes through holes in its back. The cockroaches were part of a lesson on pest management that included a display of insects from around the world.
In another creative lesson, FMC analyst Chris Michaels showed students how to hit a target with a laser and created a colorful chart that illustrated statistical variations on how close students came to the bulls-eye. Such information is critical to understanding how to change the process to allow someone to hit the bulls-eye each time, and corporations such as FMC can standardize processes to make the best product each time, he explained.
“Research has shown that unless students become ‘hooked on’ math and science by 8th grade they may never become interested. We can literally impact the future of technology by exciting students about the RSSRrWuniWies in Whese fields,” sDid BDrEDra Del Duke, FMC’s senior public affairs manager.
In addition to the FMC scientists’ experiments, the Academy of Natural Sciences provided the teacher chaperones with resources to help integrate math and science into their regular curriculums. The STEM Career Days grant followed FMC’s expansion of its internship program in response to a challenge from the National Association of Manufacturers to engage more college students in career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.