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Kristina Vischer chalked a big X on the blackboard while Girish Putcha set out a dozen soft rubber balls. The students in this freshman biology class at Central High School of the Visual and Performing Arts in North St. Louis looked on bemused. They'd been told that these Washington University students were going to give them demonstrations about how the brain works, but they didn't know what to expect. The medical and graduate students are part of the Young Scientist Program (YSP), started in 1991 to focus, educate and inspire St. Louis City public high school students interested in science.
Vischer and Putcha called for volunteers, and a tall boy stepped up to the line and tossed the balls at the blackboard, hitting the X every time. Then Vischer took out a pair of thick, weird-looking goggles. "These are prism goggles --
"Prison goggles?" asked one wary student.
"No, prism. They bend light." Vischer said as she put them on. "See? My eyeballs are over on the side."
The kids grinned. This was getting more interesting. The boy put on a pair of goggles and started throwing way to the left of the X. Gradually, though, his aim improved. Putcha explained to a now engaged audience that this was a demonstration of motor adaptation, the ability of the brain to override the eye in directing the muscles.
Robin Kyles, head of the biology department at the school, looked on with approval. "These kids love hands-on," he said. "You can't paper-and-pencil them. They'll have a lot of questions tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Daphne Robinson was introducing her group to the stars of the show, actual human brains. She passed it around. "Ugh! Brain juice!" cried one girl, refusing to touch it. But a slender girl named Helena said that holding the brain was her favorite part of the class.
At morning's end, several students come over to shake hands or say thanks. One girl asked tentatively, "Can people come visit -- you know, where you do science?"
Vischer beamed at her. "You can totally come visit."
This is the whole idea, in fact. "We hope our teaching teams spark interest," said Stephanie Strand, the YSP director. "And that students will apply for Summer Focus in their junior year." Youngsters accepted into this program work with graduate student mentors in labs at the School of Medicine.
Another program component is the Mad Scientist Network, a Web site started in 1995 that uses more than 500 scientists to answer questions from around the world in fields from astronomy to zoology. More than 9,000 computers users log on to the site every day, almost half of them from outside North America, with queries ranging from how ants walk on the ceiling to what makes the Earth rotate.
Since the YSP was started by M.D./Ph.D. students nine years ago, it has informed many underprivileged St. Louis kids about science. It has produced science fair stars and inspired youths to pursue scientific careers. Thomas A. Woolsey, M.D., YSP faculty adviser, professor of anatomy and neurobiology, of cell biology and physiology and of neurology and neurological surgery and the Bishop Scholar in Neuroscience, attributes the program's success to extraordinary young people on both sides -- exceptional Washington University students teaching inquisitive high school youths. "The kids see people not much older than they are who love what they do," he said.
The program is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through a $325,000 grant.
