Graduate student James Poteracki shows Bloomfield Hills resident Kaelin McNulty, 5, strawberry DNA Nov. 9, 2013, at Impression 5 Science Center. A lab was held to teach kids how to extract DNA from strawberries. Margaux Forster/The State News
About 70 members of the MSU community spent Saturday at the Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing to help cultivate a new generation of potential scientists.
Volunteers educated children from preschool through fifth grade about the human body in an event called PhUn Day. MSU undergraduate, graduate and medical students, as well as staff and faculty, were present to help.
PhUn Day was held as part of the American Physiological Society’s PhUn Week, a nationwide effort to promote knowledge of physiological sciences. Children were able to visit 12 stations, with each explaining a different aspect of physiology through hands-on activities.
PhUn Day volunteer and physiology senior Jeff Cross said the event helped increase awareness about how bodies work.
“Getting kids exposed at an early age is a really big deal — that way, when you get to high school and college-level science courses, you’re not completely in the dark,” Cross said.
The collaboration between MSU’s Department of Physiology and the science center attracted almost 700 people, mostly families with young children, to the center.
Seven-year-old Haslett resident Jade Dawson attended the event with her mother and brother. She said she has “a lot of things” that she wants to be when she grows up, but added that being a scientist seemed cool “because you can learn a lot of things.”
Medical student Martin Ogrodzinski, another volunteer, was inspired to pursue a scientific career after seeing explanations of DNA in the movie “Jurassic Park.” He said getting children excited about science is crucial.
“It’s important to have an easily digestible inspiration to get interested in the sciences,” Ogrodzinski said.
Assistant professor of physiology Erica Wehrwein said PhUn Day focuses on elementary-aged children because many don’t receive adequate science education.
“We have a deficiency in science education in a lot of elementary schools due to lack of funding,” Wehwein said.
There are studies that support Wehrwein’s claims. A 2012 study from the National Science Foundation found that only 20 percent of kindergarten through third grade classes taught science all or most days each week.
Susan Barman, former president of the American Physiological Society, viewed the proliferation of scientific knowledge as essential for humanity.
“The future of the world is dependent upon having (children) at this young age learn about science,” Barman said.
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