Kids Can 'Discover' fun at science camp

Kids 'Discover' fun at science camp

By ANNA GOODWIN MCCARTHY

Correspondent

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Squeals erupt from the children as the black and white rat scurries through a maze of brightly colored foam puzzle pieces and cardboard boxes, searching for the elusive cheese.

Unable to locate the cheese, the rat is at a standstill, prompting Michelle McPherson, director of school programs at Port Discover, to encourage the Port Discover Sensational Science camp-goers to modify the layout of the maze.

Quickly the group of eight to 12-year-olds moves into action in an ultimate display of teamwork using their recently acquired knowledge of positive reinforcement and learned animal behaviors to construct a new maze.

The best way to learn is through hands-on activities, said McPherson, an Elizabeth City State University graduate and former high school biology teacher.

Port Discover is Elizabeth City’s hands-on science museum for children. This summer marks the first series of summer camps since the center moved into its expanded space on Main Street. Port Discover director LuAnne Pendergraft says the larger space is allowing the center to offer expanded activities for the children, such as this week’s science camp aimed at teaching kids a variety of scientific techniques.

Moses McDaniel, Port Discover educator and ECSU research associate, demonstrated “laboratory techniques” on Monday helping campers create their own bacteria slides.

“It is absolutely great to see

them excited about science,” said McDaniel.

Sensational Science Camp attendees were introduced to the themes of microbiology, animal science, space exploration, technology/design and water quality this week. Camper Chaz McDaniel, 11, was excited to design and launch a water bottle rocket during Wednesday’s space exploration day.

McPherson said the space exploration theme was a result of requests for space themed projects on surveys at the end of last year’s summer science camp at Port Discover. The surveys at the end of each camp provide valuable feedback for planning future events.

The success of Port Discover’s programs has been maintained since its creation five years ago through the collaborative efforts of the staff, local government, community sponsors and Elizabeth City State University, according to Pendergraft.

“We wouldn’t be able to do what we are doing without the guidance of the university,” said Pendergraft.

The university’s “expertise of faculty,” “shared resources,” and presence of faculty on the 2010 Port Discover Board of Directors has led to “true community collaboration.”

Pendergraft said Port Discover has also been able to thrive through the recently purchased property that previously contained the Pasquotank Arts Council.

After moving into the larger space in March, the program was able to increase the number of participants in programs, decrease off-site travel and provide children with a “freer space to learn in,” said Pendergraft.

The larger facility contains a computer area with two computers loaded with science software, science board games and an Interactive Gallery that is open to the public. Enticing games like the cell require users “to match organelles with their functions,” by pressing buttons as a large model of a cell lights up with each selection. Another game asks users to pull a lever as they watch two balloon like lungs fill with air in a torso.

Glass habitats provide the onlooker with a glimpse into the activities of fish, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, toads, frogs, tadpoles and snakes. There is also a toddler area with “very basic” activities that provide an introduction to science, said Pendergraft.

Wendy Pierce, Port Discover director of community programs and ECSU graduate, said one of the best aspects of working with the program is the “ability to be creative in an informal learning environment.”

Pierce said the scientific method and North Carolina Standard Course of Study are used in the implementation of lessons and programs.

It is vital that we “spark a continued interest” in the areas of science, math and technology, said Pierce.

Port Discover will provide a Discovery Days camp for five to seven-year-olds June 28 to June 30.

Pendergraft said the Port Discover camps provide “quality fun” in a scientific environment.

Maze of Monkey Illusion - 2009
Optical illusion maze caused by conflicting horizontal and vertical lines.

Maze Illusion - Artwork by Yonatan Frimer

Dream a Little Dream of Recall - Those who dream about mazes solve them better

Dream a Little Dream of Recall

As the sleeping brain builds memories it generates dreams about recently learned material

Click here for source article

Posted: April 26, 2010

By Bruce Bower, Science News

People who have nap-time dreams about a task that they’ve just practiced get a big memory boost on the task upon awakening, Harvard researchers report.

Those who dream about anything else have no such enhanced recall, the team reports in a paper published online April 22 in Current Biology. Neither do those who stay awake, even if they think about the task.

“I was startled by this finding,” says study coauthor Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. “Task-related dreams may get triggered by the sleeping brain’s attempt to consolidate challenging new information and to figure out how to use it.”

His new findings elaborate on research suggesting that sleep generally enhances memory and learning (SN: 4/28/07, p. 260).

Dreaming about a demanding undertaking doesn’t cause enhanced memories for that experience, Stickgold emphasizes. Rather, memory-fortifying brain processes during sleep cause the dreams, he proposes. During slumber, Stickgold posits, a structure called the hippocampus integrates recently learned information, such as how to navigate a virtual maze, while other brain regions apply this information to related but broader situations, such as how to navigate a maze of job application forms.

That’s a “tempting speculation,” remarks physiological psychologist Jan Born of the University of Lübeck in Germany. Stickgold’s idea has much potential for fostering advances in dream research, Born says.

Stickgold’s group focused on dreams that occur during non–rapid eye movement, or NREM, sleep. Previous studies found links between chemical and electrical activity in the brain during NREM sleep and better learning by rats and people. Neural activity sparked by recent learning has not been observed during rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, which often includes especially vivid and bizarre dream elements.

In the new investigation, 99 college students age 18 to 30 spent an hour practicing a virtual maze task on a computer. In a series of trials, volunteers navigated through a complex, three-dimensional maze, starting from a different spot each time. They were instructed to remember the location of a particular tree in the maze.

For the first 90 minutes of a five-hour break from practicing, students were assigned either to take a nap or to engage in quiet activities such as watching videos.

Nappers’ electrical brain activity was monitored with scalp sensors. Experimenters questioned the students about their dreams just before they fell asleep, after one minute of continuous NREM sleep and at the end of the nap period. Volunteers who stayed awake recounted their thoughts at the start, middle and end of the 90-minute session.

After lunch and a period of quiet activity, participants reentered the virtual maze at random spots and were asked to find the tree that they had previously tried to remember.

Those who had dreamed of the experimental task — four of 50 nappers — found the tree much faster than they had in initial trials. These individuals described dreams such as seeing people at particular locations in a maze or hearing music that had played in the lab during testing.

All of the volunteers who dreamed about the maze had performed relatively poorly during pre-nap training, Stickgold notes. Memory processes invoked by the sleeping brain may respond most strongly to challenges perceived as difficult and important to solve, he suggests.

Stickgold’s group is now designing a more exciting maze task intended to elicit task-related dreams in a larger proportion of volunteers.

The researchers also plan to examine whether people who have REM dreams about a maze task during a full night’s slumber navigate that maze better the next day.