Kids get a taste of science, culture

By Javier Marquez and Daryn Kobata

Scientists work under the assumption that every natural phenomenon has an explanation that can be reached through methodical observation and the testing of hypotheses. But to many children, it’s all about magic. During their April 25 visits to the labs of Sally Newman and Paul Asimow on Take Our Children to Work Day, fourth- and fifth-graders could hardly get over the tricks the researchers played.

The five girls and three boys and their adult chaperones did their best to follow along. In tiny, cramped 09 Church, they watched Newman, a member of the professional staff in Geological and Planetary Sciences, standing at a nifty network of glass tubing, turning knobs and adjusting gauges as she performed a procedure that pulls pollutants from the air. Then she reached for a canister of liquid nitrogen.

The kids squealed with delight as the super-cold substance fizzed when poured into a metal canister and played with dust as it washed across the floor. A green leaf immersed in it turned as hard as glass.

“That was my favorite part, when she dipped the leaf and it froze and she dropped it and it shattered,” said Jasmin Hernandez, a fifth-grader from Norma Coombs Alternative School in Pasadena.

Next, during their visit to 362 Crellin, the youngsters learned how scientists mimic tremendous underground pressures. Paul Asimow, an assistant professor of geology and geochemistry, told them about one of the high-pressure instruments he works with. Plain and boxy, the hydraulic press is the strongman of its kind, capable of squeezing incredible levels of pounds per square inch into an area no bigger than a marshmallow.

“This machine can lift 500 pickup trucks,” Asimow declared as the big press hummed serenely. “There’s some lava in there right now!” Somebody gasped.

After tossing around terms like atmospheres, tungsten carbide, and octahedrons, Asimow led the group to a nearby lab, where he displayed a trove of gemstones. These he placed inside a cabinet and closed the door. Then he passed a green laser through the gems to inspect their molecular composition because, he explained, a gem may be something entirely other than what it looks like.

He determined that his sparkling diamond was a lowly cubic zirconium. His aquamarine was actually a radiation-treated topaz. And presto! For his finale, he revealed that an eye-popping two-carat diamond was, in fact, another tweaked topaz. The young gemologists were impressed.

“This is my first year and I’m amazed at the lengths that Caltech goes to expose the kids to science,” said chaperone Vicki Pratt, who works in Human Resources. Cody, her fifth-grader from Mountain View Elementary in Santa Clarita, said he liked the rock-melting machine. “He seems to like science,” Pratt said encouragingly. “Math, he works on real hard.”

“We need to open up our kids to see beyond what they see every day,” said Cynthia Torres, who works in Aeronautics. “I think sometimes we limit our kids, but we need to open them up to possibilities, like graduate school.”

On their lab visits, Torres and her daughter Jasmin, a seventh-grader at Olive Vista Junior High, got to see what a flea must look like to another flea up close. “It was nasty,” Jasmin said.
Following the lab tours, children and parents gathered for lunch in Beckman Institute courtyard, enjoying pizza on steps, chairs, and along the Gene Pool. Jasmin Hernandez joined her father, Physical Plant staff member Efrain Hernandez, and her brother, Jesse, 10.

Jasmin was an old hand at this Take Our Children day, her second, but it was Jesse’s first. He shyly described his morning of lab tours: “We were talking about earthquakes. After that, we went to a robotics lab. One of the robots had remote control and that was fun.” The time got him thinking, he said, about what he might want to do in the future.

After lunch, Wayne Snyder, assistant director of the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI) surveyed the crowd of kids: “How many of you like science?” Hands waved. “How many of you like physics?” Blank looks. “How many of you know what physics is?” A voice piped, “Physical education?”
Snyder described physics as “the study of matter and energy” and gave examples of physics in everyday life, adding, “Physics is a heck of a lot more fun than math.” The project they were about to do would prove it.

Gathering around tables near a sign proclaiming “Make a Frictionless Puck. Physics is Phun!”, the 75 or so kids set to work gluing small rubber plugs to Plexiglas squares with help from CAPSI staff and chaperones. The buzz of work and chatter filled the air. When the plugs were set in place and inflated balloons fastened over them, the devices skimmed along the tabletops like air-hockey pucks, powered by the escaping air. A cry of “Oh yeah!” went up.

From there, the girls and boys made their way to Beckman Auditorium, the day’s final destination, where Director of Public Events Denise Nelson Nash greeted them and introduced dancer Lilly Cai. The ensuing session was a kind of performance and interactive social studies lesson rolled into one, as Cai demonstrated various Chinese dances and explained their cultural context and meaning; taught the students a Chinese greeting; and had several come up on stage and practice bowing to each other. At one point, she pulled out a long, tasseled sword. “Ooh!” said several boys, as she twirled across the stage with it as skillfully as a martial arts expert.

When it was all over, seventh-graders Jessica Molina and Mary Recendez (daughters of Lucy Molina, Sponsored Research, and Yvonne Recendez, Purchasing) looked tired but happy. Both said they enjoyed the dancing most. Jessica said, “I also liked the glowing mouse”—a mouse that glows green under fluorescent light due to an implanted jellyfish gene, in President David Baltimore’s biology lab. Mary said that making the puck was “pretty cool,” and she also received unexpected inspiration for a future career.

“I was looking at the dancer’s clothes,” she said, referring to Cai’s dazzling costumes, “and I’m thinking I want to design clothes.”
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