Contact: Robbie Ward
Bottom: Fifth graders from Ward-Stewart Elementary School in Starkville experiment with different gears on computerized cars in a robotics lab at Mississippi State's Swalm School of Chemical Engineering. About 20 students recently visited the university and as reporters for the day, which also included visiting the College of Veterinary Medicine and the department of poultry science.
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A group of fifth-graders recently traded in their daily school routine to work at Mississippi State as journalists--learning about eggs, a college radio station, engineering, and the university's mascot.
Students from Ward-Stewart Elementary School in Starkville left their classroom for a day of asking questions and learning about a range of topics, from how chickens grow from eggs to daily habits of the university's bulldog mascot to discovering gears in computerized machines.
About 20 students in Debbie Vanderford's fifth-grade class visited the department of poultry science; the College of Veterinary Medicine; a robotics lab in the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering; WMSV, the university's radio station; and the State Fountain Bakery. As part of the campus trip, students were assigned to write a short piece about each part of campus they visited.
Each student reporter walked around campus with a pen, reporter's notebook and bulldog lapel pin, which served as a press pass for the day. The "reporters" explored many possible career fields as they took notes and asked questions.
At one point, the students found themselves in a dark room watching Christopher McDaniel, professor of poultry science, shine a flashlight on an egg, showing a baby chicken growing inside.
"An egg is a miraculous thing," McDaniel said.
Ebonee Robertson gathered with her classmates around the eggs during the demonstration. She said she wondered about chickens growing inside eggs.
"It's fascinating," she said, jotting down notes for her story.
Vanderford said her students--whether petting MSU's mascot or working in teams to find the best combination of gears to make a Lego vehicle move the longest distance in a chemical engineering lab--learned places their studies in elementary, junior high and high school can take them.
"It exposed them to a variety of careers," Vanderford said. "It connected them to real-life learning."
Bill Elmore, an associate professor of chemical engineering who showed the junior reporters about robotics and gears, said attracting future college students to study engineering requires outreach to younger students.
"If they can see how interesting this is now, some of them will look into what it takes to be an engineer," Elmore said, pausing before answering questions from the fifth-graders at the robotics lab.
Earlier in the school year, students wrote information about their goals, family and careers in 20 years. Student Jadee Sexton said she wants to be a veterinarian.
"I hate to see animals suffer," Sexton wrote. "If I save animals, people will be happier."
After petting TaTonka, the English bulldog whose full-time job is serving as mascot, "Bully," for the state's 129-year-old land grant university, Sexton felt sure she chose the right career.
"He's cute," she said.
Students in Vanderford's class regularly publish their articles in their class newspaper, The Vanderford News. They published their stories about different departments on campus in the most recent edition of their class paper. Student Tyler Duncan wrote specific details about learning about the different parts of eggs while at MSU.
"The shells have tiny holes that take in oxygen for the embryo inside," Duncan wrote.
For more information, contact Dr. Bill Elmore at 662-325-7206 or Debbie Vanderford at 662-324-4160.