Mad Scientists

Location: Henderson Elementary School

Date: Saturday, December 1, 2012; 9:50am-12:00 pm

Of all the Chicago Cares projects that I had done so far, Henderson Elementary School was the farthest.  However, it was also the project that I had enjoyed the most and so there was no hesitation in me doing this again.  The only difference was that I had learned from my previous mistake of taking the Orange Line CTA, and took the Red Line instead.  This meant that I had to switch to a bus at Garfield, and fortunately saw Molly waiting for the bus as well and so had some company up to the school.  We talked about this program and she mentioned that the following week was a special outing where all the volunteers and kids would be going bowling.  Unfortunately for me I was going to be occupied, but it sounded like a fantastic thing.  She said that there usually have a couple of outings in a year and the previous one was a visit to Navy Pier.  I said that I would definitely try to make it to one such outing in 2013.

We arrived at the school and in due course were joined by Brenna and Pat, as well as the other volunteers.  Then the kids arrived and it was chaos as usual.  Molly, Brenna and Pat have seen this all plenty of times and were able to get the kids settled.  After our Chemistry experiments from last time, today’s topic was Biology – not something I had enjoyed a lot at either school or in college.  The first experiment was ‘Are You A Supertaster’.  People with heightened taste are called Supertasters and these are the folk who usually find some foods bitter.  This is why some have an aversion to broccoli – a fact I learned from reading the instructions.  Since I like broccoli, it was safe to say that I am not a supertaster.  The experiment was putting a blue dye on tongue, rinsing and then putting a reinforcement ring on the tip on the tongue.  Then using a magnifying glass, we were to count the un-dyed taste buds (papillae) inside the inner ring.  Anything less than 15 is a non-taster, 15-30 is normal taster and above 30 is a supertaster.  Seemed like a fun activity.

Two kids were assigned to each volunteer and I got Carrie and David.  At the previous event, I had found David to be the chief class troublemaker and knew that I would have to keep him under control.  That the other kids follow him is an understatement.  With proper guidance and discipline, he could be a natural leader.  I played to his ego by saying would it not be great if he turned out to be a supertaster?  That got his attention and he decided to participate. 

The first step of putting the dye on the tongue is where I had the most difficulty because both, Carrie and David kept closing their mouth in apprehension when I brought the dropper close.  It is the same reaction most have to eye drops, where you blink at the very last moment.  Through some effort on my part and a lot of giggling and screaming on theirs, we did manage to get the dye on the tongue.  Next was the rinse, which gave David and opportunity to spit blue liquid.  After some cleaning and further coaxing we go the ring on each of their tongues.  I set out to count and despite the magnifying glass and the dye to guide me, was having some difficulty in counting the papillae.  I thought I counted more than 30 for David, which made him a supertaster.  He was delighted at this and went about the room telling everyone who would listen.  Carrie was in the normal taster range and Molly then compared the results, also trying to point out concepts of statistical deviation.  She really is quite good at this, and is not even a trained teacher.

Our tools for making the DNA strand

Next was a short break where Molly handed out some granola bars.  Justin, the artist whom I had seen sketching last time, was trying to get an extra bar from the bag.  He was reprimanded by Molly and once again I knew she was the right person for this job.  There were plenty of extras and it would have been easy for me to let Justin take one.  But this was about teaching the kids’ more than just science.  It was about discipline and honesty and not taking something which is not yours, without asking for permission.

 

Next game was making a DNA double helix using craft paper, glue, paper clips and colors.  One of the most amazing things is how much children love coloring.  David and Carrie were occupied coloring their protein segments while I did the cutouts.  Gluing them to get the helix seemed like a challenge, but Molly showed us a trick with the paperclips and I was surprised at the end result because it looked decent.

 

Not bad!

By the time we finished Carrie’s and David’s DNA models, it was time to go.  I chatted with Brenna and Pat who were going to lead the bowling expedition next week and they were looking forward to it.  As Molly and I started walking back towards the bus stop, a guy drove next to us and asked if we wanted a lift back downtown.  Molly knew him from volunteering and so we accepted.  He told us his name was Pete and he had been doing a 5^th grade project with Henderson since 2003.  He said it had been a rough morning where the kids had given him a hard time and he had just sent them home.  As had been the case with Justin, teaching them discipline is very important part of their education.  He said that it was also important to remember that most of the children came from poor families and did not have enough food in their bellies on weekends, when they do not have school support.  Growing up this had never been a problem in my household and while I had always heard about malnutrition, to actually be among such children and spend time with them puts everything in perspective.  They say that supertasters have aversion to lot of foods.  Based on what Pete had just said, I doubt if David would agree. There's still so much more work left to do...


*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy