Driving Science Fun to Georgia's Children
Mile after mile, Georgia State's Bio-Bus keeps bringing smile after smile to the faces of astonished children in North Central and Western Georgia.
Since its inception in 1999, the colorfully painted science lab on wheels has made more than 850 visits to schools and community organizations in 24 counties. In the process, the Bio-Bus team has shared science with more than 70,000 Pre-K-12 students in ways the kids never imagined.
"The kids are generally excited and a little intimidated at first," says Dana Brown, the bus' lab coordinator and a graduate student in geology. "The best part is hearing that they have never considered science a fun subject and watching their eyes light up."
The program offers 10 teaching modules, including states of matter, microbes, biotechnology, forensics and animal diversity. The team recently stretched its coverage east to Savannah, where it gave students at Sol C. Johnson High School a chance to finger a perp through its hands-on forensics module.
"The students really enjoyed the forensics lab," says Derrick Muhammad, Johnson High principal. "The lesson taught a lot of genetics content and made the activity fun in the process. The instructors did a wonderful job. "
Barbara Baumstark, biology professor and Bio-Bus director, is proud of the program’s success — especially that it's a teacher-driven program instead of being mandated from the administration down, she says. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect to her, she says, is the program's accessibility. Previously funded by the National Science Foundation, Georgia State now picks up the tab to keep the bus rolling.
Baumstark will add a little fuel to the program this year thanks to $5,000 she received from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents' Excellence in Teaching Award, which she won for her role as Bio-Bus director. The award is given annually to three professors in the university system, and Baumstark plans to donate the money to the program.
"The fact that we can offer our services for free means that we can serve those schools that need extra science attention the most but can least afford to pay for it."