Camp gives teachers ideas

Teachers learn simple experiments they can duplicate in their classrooms.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jane Pollack stared intently at the test tube containing a blue liquid and a small piece of metal.
The high school science teacher was in the materials lab at Youngstown State University's Rayen College of Engineering and Technology, trying to gauge if the metal was undergoing a chemical reaction.
It was a simple experiment that she and the other 14 area teachers in the class are being encouraged to take back to their own classrooms this fall.
The teachers are participating in a free one-week Materials Camp for Teachers presented primarily by the Warren Chapter of American Society for Metals International and the ASM Materials Education Foundation.
Rhonda Williamson, vice president of the Warren chapter and director of the Industrial Information Institute for Education Inc., is the camp organizer and said the chapter at first considered offering a student camp in materials science.
The decision was to hold a camp for teachers instead, she said, explaining that, by educating 20 teachers, the camp will also educate hundreds of students.
Easily duplicated experiments
The camp is designed to teach math, science, technology and industrial arts teachers some low- or no-cost laboratory experiments that they can easily duplicate in their classrooms, said Dr. Robert McCoy, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at YSU and a volunteer at the camp.
The idea is to make materials science fun and interesting for students, Williamson said.
The teachers learn experiments with metals, ceramics, glass, polymers, composites and corrosion.
Tracy Braho, a physics, chemistry and biology teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, liked the first camp so much last year that she applied to come back for the second camp this year.
"I had fun," she said, adding, "We get to play around. Science is our toy."
Traci Cain-Tiggs, a chemistry teacher at The Rayen School, also came back this year, looking for new and different activities she can employ in her classroom. She found them, she said.
Valuable lessons
"I've learned several things that I'm going to do with my students," said Stacy Madison, a math teacher at Canfield High School.
"It's been an eye-opener," he said.
Madison said he learned about the camp through an e-mail and thought it sounded interesting and could teach him some things to use in his classroom.
The trend today is to make what we teach relevant to the students, and materials science experiments do that, he said.
Pollack, who taught science at The Rayen School last year, pointed out that materials science is the future, and that's something she stresses to her classes.
Williamson said the Warren ASM chapter offers teachers in the camp a support system that includes bringing materials and equipment to their classrooms to run experiments. That outreach effort went to Wilson, Boardman and West Middlesex high schools last year, she said.
It costs about $15,000 to run the camp, she said.
In addition to YSU and ASM, the camp is sponsored by contributions from Materials Research Laboratories Inc. of Struthers, The Faboratory of Boardman, and Vallourec and Mannesmann Tubes, which is based in Boulogne, France, and owns V & amp;M Star of Youngstown.
gwin@vindy.com