Little Hands, Tiny Pipettes, Big Discoveries!
“What do you think made that odor?” Students’ hands shot up in the air with ready responses, ranging from smelly socks to stinky cats, as they listened to the visiting scientist read Andrea Beatty’s Ada Twist, Scientist. Together they search for clues in the story to help them answer the puzzling question at the center of the story.
A Girfols Employee reads Ada Twist, Scientist to a classroom of Berkeley 1st graders.
This story, one among a CRS-curated list of stories that broaden representation of scientists, never fails to engage students in honing their scientist skills: asking questions, forming hypotheses and using evidence to defend conclusions. Teams of STEM professionals from industry partners, including Amyris, Bio-Rad, Clorox, Gilead and Grifols, have read, shared science activities and inspired more than 650 young children in grades TK to 2 with Storytime with a Scientist lessons this school year.
After the story, students dive into an experiment, led by their scientist visitor, exploring what might be hidden in their coloring markers. The students eagerly use pipettes to carefully drop water onto their chromatography experiment sheets - while many of the scientists share about how they also use chromatography in their research and labs.
Just like Ada Twist, the curious young learners persist with a sense of wonder, which turns into awe as the hidden colors reveal themselves and students discover surprising new information about their familiar coloring markers.
Berkeley students explore the colors hidden within each coloring marker.
And, the scientists get a boost from the joyful learning experience, too.
“This was such an amazing experience for myself, the students, and the teacher(s).” said one Bio Rad employee.
Teachers agree the experience has a lasting impact on their students, helping to build student identities as scientists and connecting learning with their daily lives. Said one Berkeley 1st grade teacher,
“The book was highly engaging, but the hands-on chromatography was FANTASTIC! The kids loved it and many of them tried it again at home last night.”