By Alisa DeMao
ademao@onlineathens.com

Chris Wildman, right, a graduate student at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, talks with other participants in a program aimed at developing a high-school science curriculum that will be accessible and interesting to students. Program participants visited Cedar Shoals High School on Monday. R.C. Rique/Staff

   Georgia educators are hoping the way to students' minds is through their stomachs.
   Based on the universal interest in food, participants in a program at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are working to develop a high-school science curriculum that's both accessible and interesting to students and the general public. Funded by a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant, the ''Science Behind Our Food'' program has paired 10 graduate students with 10 high-school teachers from across the state for a hands-on - or should that be hands-in - experience over the past two weeks.
   ''I went home last week and told everyone about the cow thing,'' Cedar Shoals High School science teacher Paul Blais said. ''I felt like a high school kid again.''
   ''The cow thing'' included the chance for participants to put their hands inside of a living cow - one with a medical apparatus implanted in its side to allow access - to examine the process of digestion and the contraction of muscles in the digestive system, explained Christopher Wildman, a UGA grad student specializing in ruminant nutrition.
   Other activities in Athens, Griffin and Tifton have included extracting DNA from bananas and a tour of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, as well as presentations on crops, food safety, bugs and birds - specifically poultry. On Monday, the group visited a science classroom and teacher workroom at Cedar Shoals High School - which sparked tales of tiny staff rooms and keeping biology specimen jars in refrigerators with staff lunches.
   One goal of the program is to train science professionals to communicate effectively, said David Knauft associate dean of the agriculture college and one of the leaders in developing the program. The graduate teaching fellows learn from the high-school teachers how to communicate ideas and set up accessible experiments. In return the teachers can call on the grad student they're paired with for resources.
   ''For a lot of people, science is as incomprehensible as Frankenstein's lab,'' said Rody Nash, a doctoral student in animal and dairy sciences. ''And a lot of scientists don't help the situation. They make it more complicated than it has to be.''
   Teachers warned the grad students to keep in mind that high school students aren't all as academically motivated as college students and that many can be thrown by scientific jargon and unfamiliar scientific words.
   The program, which continues through Wednesday, also allowed participants to trade ideas for science lessons, including Danielle Armstrong's tale of how she guided a project to build a pond at Columbus High School in DeKalb County. The environmental science teacher researched the idea on the Internet, had her students help with the digging, found grant money to pay for the expenses and got help from people becoming certified as master gardeners who had to do a certain amount of community service. She stocked the pond with frogs and fish, and students now have a place for hands-on environmental science work.
   ''Some of them (the students) weren't really involved until then, and it really sparked their interest,'' Armstrong told the other teachers. ''It was a great experience for me and the students.''
   The program also gave teachers new information about science-related careers for their students, said Vicki Sherling, who teaches at Turner County High School in Ashburn.
   ''We're finding out a lot of career opportunities for our students - and not only those going on to college, but technology prep schools, too,'' Sherling said. ''There's a world of opportunity we weren't aware of.''
   

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, July 22, 2003.