Hanover
Nearly everyone came up with the same thing: “an old man,” said McKenzie, a Bennington, Vt., eighth-grader attending a free science event at Dartmouth College on Saturday. Her teacher offered a different perspective: “A scientist could be any of you,” McKenzie remembered her saying.
That’s also the message of Science Day, which aims to teach students about various fields of scientific research and introduce them to “scientists-in-training.”
Organized by Graduate Women in Science and Engineering, a Dartmouth student group, the annual event features short hands-on science activities set up in buildings across campus. While anyone can attend, it’s geared toward kids in grades six to nine.
“That’s the age then you are figuring out what you might want to do,” said Jessica DeSimone, one of the organizers and a graduate student in the biochemistry department of Darmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
“We want to make sure as many people as possible are pursuing science careers.”
The event shows that scientists are “actual people” — men and women of different ages — which can help students imagine themselves in the role of a scientist, DeSimone said. It also gives students an idea of what majors are available in college, and what it would be like to have a career in science.
Throughout the day, about 120 students and scores of adults zigzagged from activity to activity, directed by signs such as, “Come Watch Photosynthesis and Respiration!” and “Worms Under the Microscope.”
Visitors to the basement of Sudikoff Hall checked out an application designed by graduate student Vishal Gaurav and a colleague that lets someone wearing a smartwatch use hand gestures to control applications on a laptop or smartphone.
Up a floor, a crowd waited quietly for a machine to create a toy-sized cat, penguin and bird from layers and layers of purple plastic, in a demonstration of 3D printing.
Down the street in the Life Sciences Center, Shan Chen used insulin, ketchup, a clump of sod and an athletic sock to teach about the role of microorganisms in everyday life.
People are “shocked” to learn that the same bacteria that causes feet to stink also produces cheese, said Chen, a graduate student in Geisel’s Genetics Department.
Nearby, Ana Maria Dumitru was leading a popular activity — isolating DNA from strawberries. McKenzie and her friend Sarah Umphlett were among a steady stream of people who stepped up. The girls, who traveled from Bennington with McKenzie’s mother, are each considering careers in the medical field.
With Dumitru’s coaching, they crushed the fruit in a plastic bag and added a solution of salt, water and dish soap. They strained the concoction through cheesecloth into glass tubes. Finally, Dumitru added ethanol to the liquid, causing a thick cloudy layer to form. “All the stringy stuff, that’s the DNA,” said Dumitru, a student in Geisel’s M.D.-Ph.D. program.
McKenzie grandfather, Jason Kelley, asked what the DNA would be used for.
Scientists can look at the individual chromosomes and add and subtract things in and out of a genome, said Dumitru, who also described how she studies chromosomes as part of her work in cancer research.
Umphlett stirred the liquid in her tube with a popsicle stick. “It’s goopy,” she said.
“How long is this visible?” McKenzie asked.
Depending on how much detergent is there, it will last a little while, said Dumitru, looking at Kelley’s tube. “That’s good. A really nice separation.”
Cara Nguyen, a high school sophomore from Vietnam, also did the strawberry activity. Nguyen had traveled from Lyndonville, Vt., where she’s studying at a boarding school. She had never visited Dartmouth and was eager to see it.
“I don’t really know what scientists do exactly, so I think it’s a good chance to see what’s inside here,” said Nguyen, who wants to do something in medicine and is considering applying to the college.
Earlier, she’d told Dumitru that she wasn’t sure about spending entire days working in a lab. Dumitru’s response came as a relief.
It’s possible to see patients and also do research, she said. “Some physicians here do 80 percent in the lab and 20 percent with patients,” or half and half.
“I thought it would be really cool if I could go in in the morning and see patients who have cancer,” and spend the afternoon in the lab, finding a way to help them, Dumitru said.
“There’s a world of possibilities.”
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.