Contact: Robbie Ward
Photo by: Megan Bean
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Niazia Hollingshed sits in class studying small objects floating in a jar on her desk.
As part of a lesson project, she and other students in Nancy Sistrunk's fifth-grade class at Ward-Stewart Elementary School in Starkville also are placing bits of wood, steel BBs and plastic into the jars filled with canola oil, water, and corn syrup. They are seeking to demonstrate how physical and chemical properties of objects help predict how they will behave in certain situations.
Hollingshed, whose favorite subject is science, loves experiments like this. Her eyes brighten as she listens to assistant professor Keisha Walters of nearby Mississippi State explain how each object's density determines where it falls within the liquids.
Walters, a member of the university's chemical engineering faculty, is visiting the class as part of a collaborative project started by MSU communication professor Mark Goodman and Bonnie Oppenheimer, a Mississippi University for Women mathematics professor. Their work is supported by the Mississippi Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, Mississippi EPSCoR works to encourage science and technology research and development in the state. It also seeks to encourage more women and minority students to become engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--typically referred to as STEM programs.
Historically, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities have been underrepresented in these academic areas. Goodman and Oppenheimer want to help change that by bringing university scientists and mathematicians into elementary classes of the Starkville public schools.
"Our hope is that, if students see women presenting science lessons or African-Americans teaching mathematics, they will be able to imagine themselves in these fields," Goodman explained.
He said research has indicated that students who develop an interest in science, math and technology at a young age are more likely to pursue careers in those fields when they get older.
After completing three different experiments, Walters, a Mississippi EPSCoR project researcher, encouraged the students to consider learning more about engineering.
"If you liked this, I want you to consider studying engineering," she told Sistrunk's class. "It's a long word that means to experiment and solve problems."
Later, Walters recalled how she had few women role models while in high school. Teachers certainly never pointed her toward engineering, she added.
"That's why I do this," she said, after taking leave of the Ward fifth-graders. "Young students need encouragement."
Back in the class, Hollingshed and her fellow learners appeared engaged and eager to know more. Hollingshed said she wants to teach science when she gets older; maybe even become a scientist.
"I would just love it," she said, with a wide grin.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Katie Echols, education and outreach coordinator for MS EPSCoR, at 662-325-8904 or kechols@research.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.