"Back to basics"

General Article
March 6, 2003

Graduate students hone mentoring skills with 'icy' chemical talks at Hutch School

Beatrice Wong, a University of Washington graduate student, helps ninth-grader Daniel Boardman with science studies. Photo by Todd McNaught

By BRAD BROBERG

There are two ways to describe the presentation that three University of Washington students made recently at Hutch School.

Officially, they were using dry ice to demonstrate basic chemical properties for a class of high-school students. Unofficially, they were doing "mad scientist stuff," said Ken Wong.

Wong, Marc Kosaka and Andrew Yafuso visited Hutch School as part of the Science Mentor Program sponsored by the center's Science Education Partnership. Their visit was an example of the many ways in which SEP involves professional-school and graduate students in its outreach programs.

Every year, up to 60 UW students from the School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy and the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program (jointly administered by Fred Hutchinson and the UW) share their time, enthusiasm and knowledge with young people through SEP activities, said Dr. Wendy Law, postdoctoral fellow and coordinator for the Science Mentor Program.

"They make very significant contributions," Law said.

Besides visits to Hutch School (the center's school for patients and family members of kindergarten to high-school age), the graduate students volunteer in family science nights at local schools, mentor high-schoolers who enter an annual Biotech Expo and assist when high-school science classes come to the center for HutchLab, a day-long workshop filled with hands-on activities.

Satisfy teaching requirements

But for all the contributions they make through SEP, the volunteers also benefit. That's especially true for some of the graduate students working at the center. They can partially satisfy teaching requirements by participating in SEP activities.

Just as important, however, all SEP volunteers get to hone a valuable skill, Law said. With science playing an increasing role in everyday life, it's important for scientists to be able to communicate their work with the public, not just with each other, she said.

And working with young people helps graduate students and medical students who are on science and health-related career paths learn to do just that.

"We want to give them a chance early in their careers to talk about science with nonscientists," Law said. "You can't use all the jargon. You really have to go back to the basics."

That's what Wong, Kosaka and Yafuso - all UW pharmacy students - did during their presentation at Hutch School.

"The part that took a long time was figuring out what to do," Wong said. "A lot of the experiments we did when we were in high school would be too dangerous."

Wong is president of the UW School of Pharmacy Honor Society, and Kosaka and Yafuso are members. Each quarter, the society picks a public-service project to get involved in. Last fall was the first quarter that groups from the honor society have visited Hutch School, with each group visiting the middle-school and high-school classrooms one time each.

The dynamic quality of dry ice - as it "melts" it turns from a solid into a gas - gave Wong, Kosaka and Yafuso a safe but dramatic range of activities to perform.

Eerie cloud of dry ice

For example, by dropping dry ice into a fish tank partially filled with water, they created an eerie cloud of carbon dioxide that remained near the water's surface, showing how CO2 is heavier than air. Then they blew soap bubbles into the tank, which hovered atop the cloud, showing the bubbles were heavier than air, but lighter than C02.

"Are you going to take the rest of the dry ice back with you?" asked a fascinated Michelle Kemp, a 14-year-old Hutch School student from Anacortes.

"Yes," Law replied. "I borrowed it from a lab, and they're going to need it for their experiments."

When Yafuso invited Kemp to don a pair of rubber gloves and put her hand into the C02 cloud, she initially balked.

"It might suck me in," she said in mock fright before dipping her fingers into the fog. "I thought it would be cold, but it isn't."

Kemp's teacher, Teri Hein, said the nature of Hutch School makes it hard to give students the kind of science instruction they might get back home.

"Some come for a week, some come for six months, and they all have different science backgrounds," she said.

The presentations by volunteers from the Science Mentor Program are a good way to expose students to science in a manner they can all appreciate, Hein said.

Not only that, Law said, but participation by the college volunteers in all SEP programs broadens the horizons of young people by exposing them to role models who are pursuing science and health-related careers.

Even if their career goals do not shift, many young people view science as more accessible and interesting once they can connect with a young scientist in informal activities, she said.

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