November 5, 1998

Grant gets 'Slime' to students

By Garret Leiva
Herald staff writer
     
      Thanks to $10,500 grant provided by Traverse City Wal-Mart to the Grand Traverse Regional Math & Science Technology Center more area students will be getting "slimed" this school year.
      But parents take heart, 'Slime TV' doesn't require a change of clothes. Instead, this hands-on science experiment is all about keeping it clean - the environment that is.
      "This program is about generating a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and inquisitive learning," said GTRMST Center Director, Gary Money, who demonstrated a working model of 'Slime TV' to several dozen Wal-Mart associates during a grant presentation last Wednesday.
      "We want kids to think, 'Boy, I wonder what this looks like."
      Beginning last spring, students in the five-county region were able to put these questions under the compound microscopes that make up the technology of videomicroscopy. Using a sophisticated camera, VCR and high quality television monitor, 'Slime TV' enables students to collect pond 'scum,' bugs, rocks, soil and other items and record each of their findings.
      Money noted that last year an estimated 600 elementary and high school students used this new technology as part of their science labs.
      While the science program has been wildly successful in the classroom, Money did admit that there was some softening done around all this cutting edge technology.
      "The correct name for this is videomicroscopy. But if I walked up to first-grade teacher and said, 'Hey, I've got something in the hall here you're going to like- it's called videomicroscopy.' I better jump back because they're going to slam the door in my face," said Money, who spent 20 years in the classroom himself as a teacher.
      "Instead we came up with the more user-friendly term of 'Slime TV.' The kids all really seem to like it."
      Something else that students enjoy is how 'Slime TV' benefits school study programs such as the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed's Water Watch which involves 1,000 fifth- through twelfth-graders in the five-county region.
      As part of this program, students conduct water quality tests to calculate an overall water quality index and compare monitoring results from site-to-site, noted Bill Queen, Education Coordinator for the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed Initiative. From this analysis, students examine various land uses to determine whether a cause/effect relationship exists.
      By utilizing such programs as 'Slime TV' and Water Watch, Money said students will hopefully have not only a greater understanding and appreciation of their environment, but of science as well.
      "We want these kindergartners and first- and second-graders to know what scientists do by actually having an opportunity to work as scientists. We're not giving them a worksheet and saying, 'Here, draw a bug and tell me what you think of it.' We want the kids to actually get involved and see that this is kind of cool," Money noted.
      "Some might be thinking, 'I might like to do this when I grow up.' But the only way they are going to know is if they have a chance to use it as a kid."