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INCREASING EARNING POTENTIAL
(Excerpted from the Akron Beacon Journal, 7/22/1999)
BY KATIE BYARD
Beacon Journal staff writer
High schoolers are figuring out how to attach tracking devices
to whales in a lab at the University of Akron as part of an international
effort to study how whales and other marine animals live.
But educators say the scope of the project involves an even bigger
prize.
The high schoolers are part of an Upward Bound program aimed at
encouraging talented young people to pursue a college education,
especially math and science studies.
The program is aimed at disadvantaged students who have displayed
talent in math and science. Participants are either from low-income
families or have parents who did not complete a four-year college
degree.
``The whole idea is to kind of level the playing field and give
these kids the same opportunities middle- and high-income kids often
have'' said John Vesalo, coordinator of UA's federally funded Upward
Bound Math/Science Program.
Often, kids from higher-income families go to affluent schools
with fancy science labs, Vesalo said. Meanwhile, he said, kids from
low-income areas go to schools with uninspiring math and science
facilities.
``The students come here, and they're actually studying in one
of the premier laboratories in the entire country with state-of-the-art
facilities,'' Vesalo said.
On a recent morning, the fishy smell of whale blubber permeated
a section of a lab in UA's Goodyear Polymer Science Building.
But the students focused on their whale project -- not the smell.
``We got over the smell early on,'' said 17-year-old Eldora Grandison,
17, who will be a senior at Firestone High School in Akron this
fall.
``We're actually getting something accomplished,'' said 17-year-old
David Gray of Durham, N.C. ``We're actually getting to use our minds
-- we're not just following directions.''
Costly research
The students said they are testing polymers -- specifically adhesives
-- to see how they stick to whale blubber. The students want to
know if it is feasible for scientists to use some type of glue to
attach the tracking devices to the whales.
Scientists now attach the devices -- tags -- to whales by partially
implanting a barb into the blubber layer. However, many of the tags
used to transmit data to satellites fall off shortly after they
are attached.
This makes for costly research; the cost of a tag ranges from $3,500
to $5,000.
``The whale blubber tissue rejects objects. It's like how we work
stones or splinters out of our skin,'' said Michael Williamson,
director of WhaleNet, the
Massachusetts-based marine science program that uses information
gained by tracking whales around the globe to excite students nationwide
about math and science. WhaleNet is working with the UA students
on the whale tag research.
Not ready to leave
First, the students at UA used vinyl -- which is similar in texture
to whale blubber -- for the tests. Last week, some whale blubber
was shipped to them. The students have determined that one type
of commercial glue seems to work best. But the high schoolers --
just like professional scientists -- caution that more tests need
to be performed.
They lament that their summer Upward Bound experience at
UA will end this week and they won't be able to do further
studies. Vesalo said that he and Partnership for America's
Future [now the National Museum of Education 10/2005] officials
are soliciting grant money to fund further Upward Bound research
projects involving the whale tags.
The students are among 40 high schoolers from Ohio and other states
who are attending UA for six weeks of math and science classes this
summer as part of the Upward Bound initiative. During the school
year, students attend workshops and tutorials and communicate with
UA instructors via the Internet.
UA program organizers chose six of the math/science students for
the whale tag project.
All of the Upward Bound math/science students live in UA dorm rooms
and take classes in polymer science. They also take classes in chemistry,
mathematics, computer science, literature, rhetoric and Latin.
Local teachers who run a program designed to promote students'
creativity -- called Partnership for America's Future [now
the National Musuem of Education 10/2005] -- introduced UA
officials to the WhaleNet program. ``You couldn't have done
this project without ingenuity,'' said 16-year-old Whitni
Milton in the lab. She said the students had to develop their
own testing methods.
``I'm learning that science takes a lot of creativity,'' said Whitni,
who lives in Cincinnati.
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