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Paracelsus Outside the Classroom Was Huge Success in Baltimore
On March 15, the excitement in the Baltimore streets for St. Patrick was equally matched inside the Port Discovery Children's Museum. The Society of Toxicology K–12 Task Force, under the sponsorship of the Communications Committee, organized an energetic and successful outreach event in association with this year's Annual Meeting.
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"Paracelsus Outside the Classroom" introduced children to the role of toxicology in every day life through hands-on experiments and a scavenger hunt of toxicology facts. More than 800 small children and their families were exposed to various toxicology concepts, including oxidation, chemical reactions, and healthy habits to prevent disease. Children from various organizations (SOT membership, Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Big Brother/Big Sister, home schools, and elementary schools) took part in the event, having learned about it from various networking and publicity sources in the Baltimore area. SOT paid for reduced rate tickets and distributed them to those who registered in advance.
Lead by Maureen Gwinn, the other Task Force members organizing the event included Joanna Matheson (experiments), Suzanne Fitzpatrick (volunteer coordination), Daniel Arrieta (volunteer recruitment), Kathy Gabrielson (high school recruitment and organization), Katie Sprugel (scavenger hunt), and Stacie Wild (registration). Kristie Gulick was the chief contact at Port Discovery, Mary Stapleton at UMBI, and SOT staff assistance was provided by Martha Lindauer and Betty Eidemiller.
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Paracelsus Outside the Classroom was modeled after an outreach event that the SOT National Capital Area Regional Chapter has sponsored for the past two years in Frederick, MD. The three experiments were selected from those used in this pilot event, and included Baggie Science, Bouncing Ball, and Friendly Fungus. Two weeks prior to the event, high school volunteers were trained in the experiments, and then lead the younger children in these experiments with the assistance of SOT members. In this way, this event not only exposed the younger children to toxicology, but also served as an excellent training exercise for the high school students. Further, the high school students were able to interact with established scientists and learn more about career opportunities in toxicology. The scavenger hunt highlighted various key points in toxicology, including natural toxins, pesticide use, toxic effects of lead, food safety, and others, using displays that were already present in the museum. The Maryland Poison Control Center was also on hand with a booth on household poisons. Representatives also answered questions throughout the day to help kick off Poison Prevention Week.
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At Port Discovery Children's Museum (target age group grades 1–6) from 10:00 AM to 12:00 NOON families pre-registered through SOT rotated through the three different experiments, participated in the scavenger hunt, or did independent exploration, or combinations of those activities. At noon, the museum opened to the public, who were then encouraged to participate in all aspects of the event, including experiments, demonstrations, and the scavenger hunt. At 2:00 PM, the second session officially began with a wave of more pre-registered individuals to take part in all events until the museum closed at 5:00 PM.
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More than 40 high school students (primarily juniors and seniors) were scheduled a half day as experiment leaders at Port Discovery and the other half day at University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). There they engaged in an experiment extracting natural plant products and looking for toxic effects on bioluminescent bacteria. Students were welcomed by Bill Hays or Marion Ehrich, active participants in SOT Educational Outreach activities, who interacted with area scientists about the Society of Toxicology. A mentoring sign-up sheet was supplied so that students interested in a mentoring experience could be matched by their interests and that of area scientists. Lunch was provided for them at UMBI between sessions.
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A special thanks to the more than 30 SOT volunteers who assisted on the day of the event, including a few who volunteered their children as well. All volunteers were enthusiastic and able to assist in multiple areas, including experiments, scavenger hunt, registration, and demonstrations. The interaction of these toxicologists with the student volunteers, participants and the public at the event helped to bring home the message of the variability of toxicology careers and the role of toxicology in every day life.
An additional opportunity for high school students was exhibiting their research posters near the SOT Resource Pavilion in the Baltimore Convention Center Tuesday, March 17, and Wednesday, March 18. Seven students participated, each displaying a poster for half of the day. Dr. Gabrielson accompanied these students to scientific sessions and tours of the exhibit hall.
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These activities were a wonderful success on multiple levels. Through this event, SOT was able to introduce toxicology to hundreds of children and their families of multiple ages and from multiple organizations; SOT also introduced high school students to toxicology and many of the career opportunities in the field of toxicology. Further, the task force members were able to engage many SOT members in the event and encourage them to bring these ideas back to their Regional Chapters for similar events. In fact, several volunteers solicited information about using similar activities for education outreach efforts in their region. These materials have been made available to members and participants at K–12 Outreach for Scientists. Outreach materials were also available for review at the SOT Resource Pavilion. SOT also had requests from area after school groups to keep them informed of any future events of this type. And finally, we were able to show children that science is fun and a possible career option for all.
Given the overwhelmingly positive response from participants and volunteers, the K–12 Task Force hopes that SOT continues to support science outreach efforts to the K–12 audience. The local volunteers are enthusiastic and willing to host a similar event in conjunction with the SOT Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2011.
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