Students get their hands dirty with science at Hendrix

The study of science doesn't necessarily have to be clean.

When many students think of science, they think of reading thick textbooks and spending days in cold, sterile laboratories.

However, the local students who participated in Hendrix College's Ridin' Dirty with Science two-day camp learned the study of science can go beyond the classroom and sometimes into the dirt.

Students in the Boys and Girls Club of Faulkner County who will be in the fourth- through seventh-grade in the fall were invited to spend time with Hendrix students and perform several experiments, from creating their own cleaning products to testing antibacterial soaps, Samantha Clark, senior biology major and program leader, said Thursday.

"Last year this program started as an outreach program for the Boys and Girls Club to really give the students a chance to experience science in ways they probably wouldn't normally get to," Clark said.

Clark said the main goal of the program is to prove to students that science can be found in many more places than just books.

"The kids have been outside collecting different things to make slides and then they come back and look directly at it," Clark said. "They like that it is hands-on and that they can actually find stuff themselves to study."

Bob Fureigh, a senior chemistry student who is also a program leader, said the group's goal for the second year of the program was to make it more interactive. One of the adjustments they did to provide that interaction was the addition of more Hendrix students.

"Having more of us here really gives us a chance to answer all the questions the kids have for us and it's good to have people at every lab table and every microscope," Fureigh said. "This year there is one Hendrix student for every two younger students."

After scouring the Hendrix campus to uncover science specimen from frog eggs to flower buds to pond scum, Tanisha Jones and Shaniquca Herron, who will be seventh-graders at Bob Courtway Middle School in the fall, said they were having a blast.

"I like being here and I thought it was fun because B.J. (a Hendrix student) got into the water to find us stuff to look at," Herron said. "And we found a baby frog that was pretty gross when we looked at it closely.

Jasmine King, who will be in the seventh-grade at Carl Stuart Middle School, said during the program she was able to discover many things about science she didn't know before.

"I like this program because I get to see neat stuff like pollen cones and I like how you get to do hands-on stuff," King said.

According to Fureigh, some of the kids' favorite experiments included touching dirty candy with gloved hands, washing the gloves with various soaps and measuring the results and peering at slides through microscopes to guess which was the dirtiest.

"A lot of the kids see what's under the microscope or showing up on the television screen and they just stare at it and say, 'Wow,'" Clark said. "You can just see their eyes light up and that makes us feel good that we were able to introduce them to this stuff."

The grade-school kids weren't the only ones who were having fun while learning Thursday, either. Clark said the older students had just as much fun making slime and playing with dry ice.

"We don't really have a set time limit on certain experiments, we just let them play as much as they want to, as long as they are engaged and interested in any aspect of science," Clark said.

Hendrix College's Ridin' Dirty with Science program was fully funded through a grant from the college's Odyssey Program, Fureigh said.