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By Peter Rejcek
It all started with a science fair project at James Monroe
Middle School in Albuquerque, N.M. Last month, teacher
Turtle Haste and her student Andy Olander presented their
data on a project studying sun shadows around the world
— including Antarctica — at the American Geophysical
Union (AGU) annual meeting in San Francisco.
“It’s turned into this monster. I don’t
know what happened. It’s like a snowball,” said
Haste, an eighth-grade physical sciences teacher at James
Monroe who also teaches earth sciences in the summer at
the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth
.
The story goes something like this: Last year, Haste
encouraged two of her students, Samir Farmer and Shelby
Cluff, to do a science fair project that would measure
the shadow cast by a stick as the seasons waxed and waned.
The questions the students wanted to answer: Does the
shadow really grow shorter in the summer and longer in
the winter?
To help answer the former, they enlisted the help of
U.S. Antarctic Program personnel at Palmer and South Pole
stations.
Al Baker, South Pole Science Support coordinator, helped
take weekly measurements for the project throughout the
austral summer — right at the geographic pole, which
marks 90 degrees south latitude.
“It is gratifying to us to encourage the latest
generation of future scientists,” Baker said via
e-mail from the South Pole. “We hope to see them
on the Ice in the near future.”
The effort won the students the right to compete at a
regional science fair. “They didn’t get any
further, but they had a really good time,” Haste
said. “It was the first time anybody from our school
went to regionals.”
This year, Haste recruited four students — Olander,
Shannon Hamilton, Meagan Richards and Dylan Terry —
to repeat the experiment. ANDRILL , an International Polar
Year program studying the Earth’s paleoclimate through
sediment cores, has adopted the Shadow Project into its
education and outreach programs. In addition, the U.S.
Geological Survey has used its connections around the
globe for similar measurements in such far-flung places
as Egypt.
Haste and Olander presented their findings Dec. 17 at
the AGU, which boasts a membership of 50,000 scientists,
teachers and students. Haste said Olander, 14, is one
of the youngest students to present at the AGU conference.
The school experiment requires the students to commit
to a long-term goal, according to Haste. The group usually
meets twice per week during lunch breaks to discuss their
data.
“I kept going with it because I saw a need for it
and wanted to see what we could do with it and who we
could get to talk to us,” Haste said. “If we
can get [the students] to do something that takes longer
than a month, and they actually see the progress in it,
then they’re more likely to focus on long-term projects
when they get to high school.”
It’s all about the kids — but their teacher
enjoys some satisfaction as well.
“Projects like this keep me going. I get up in the
morning and I look to see who has written me from the
South Pole or Palmer,” Haste said. “I get excited.
I want to do it. I want to be there every day to find
out what’s new.”
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