School just let out, but these students are loving life in the science lab

On Friday morning, a science classroom on the New College of Florida’s campus was hopping with activity, despite the campus emptying out a month earlier. The classroom was filled with middle school and high school students, fixated on piles of trash sitting in front of them.

The 31 students had collected the bottles, candy wrappers and plastic bags from the New College Bayfront, and their task now was to create something beautiful out of it. New College biology professor Sandra Gilchrist looked on as makeshift shields, fish, benches and swords evolved from what had been piles of garbage.

The 15th year of PUSH/SUCCESS, a two-week science camp, was wrapping up. Gilchrist established the program to teach scientific concepts to students from demographics under-represented in science.

“We are trying to stimulate curiosity and higher-order thinking skills related to science,” she said. “We want to help students recognize their strengths and how they can use them in a science career. Curiosity, persistence and an open mind are prerequisites.”

Friday’s trash-to-treasure activity was designed to help students understand the amount of debris, but the camp delved into much more complex academic areas than that. During the two weeks, students conducted water samples from New College’s marine science research boat, looked at plankton under microscopes and developed underwater robots. They created Powerpoint presentations to explain their findings and used Microsoft Excel to compile data.

Despite the newness of summer, the students in the New College classroom Friday were enthusiastic about what they had learned in the program.

Ryan Rueda, 17, excitedly described learning about robots, spending a night in the New College dorms and the dangers of micro plastics.

“Micro plastics are spreading a lot more, and the more they spread, the worse it gets,” Rueda said. “And the more microplastics that we endure, we can get sick.”

Recent New College graduate Rylee Twinam helped lead the program, and she said camp presented scientific concepts in a way that traditional science classes can’t.

One of the more memorable activities for several students was based on Twinam’s baccalaureate thesis project about microplastics. Students were able to watch the microscopic battle that takes place when hemocytes — immune system cells — are mixed with the tiny pieces of plastic. The hemocytes devour the microplastics in order to protect the host.

In addition to seeing the hemocytes defend their territory, Twinam said, the students loved cracking open the oysters and seeing what was inside.

“A lot of them sit in science classes and I think it can be pretty boring, but here we do a lot of hands-on activities, which I think is really beneficial for the students,” Twinam said.

Eaton Bell Jr., 15, agreed. He attends Manatee School for the Arts, and this was his third time attending PUSH/SUCCESS. He said last year’s camp sparked conversations with his teachers.

“As soon as I took it last year I went back and I was always talking to my science teacher,” Bell said.

“That happened to me last year,” Kani Washington, 13, said. “After I finished the camp and went back to science class I had a lot to talk about and it made it more interesting.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 2:27 PM with the headline "School just let out, but these students are loving life in the science lab."