By LESTER CHANG
Nicholas Gerrare, a second-grade student at Stocklmeir Elementary School, used to wonder why the cookie dough his mother kneaded rose in the oven.
He thought magic accounted for the changes.
Now, thanks to a national program designed to stimulate an interest in science among schoolchildren, Gerrare and more than 20 of his classmates are discovering that chemical reactions create the magic and cause the changes.
"When the cookie dough rose at home, I didn't know why," Gerrare said during a recent class on chemical reactions. "Now I do. I feel great."
With the support of the Cupertino Union School District, the National Science Resources Center, based in Washington, D.C., is testing a kit at the Sunnyvale school that deals with chemical changes.
Called "Changes," the kit uses experiments to illustrate chemical reactions that occur every day, such as the curdling of milk. Students see and record changes in the colors of ingredients that are mixed and the evaporation of some solutions.
The message students receive is this: Changes occur all the time. They learn that time changes everything, including themselves.
"Changes" is one of 24 kits the NSRC is developing under a program called Science and Technology for Children. The kits deal with magnets, water, plants, organisms and other items, and have been used by elementary schools across the nation.
Cupertino was chosen to test the "Changes" kit because it is one of the premier school districts in the nation and because it has tested other kits, said Louise Wiest, a science resource teacher with the district.
The NSRC was established by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences to improve teaching of science in schools across America.
The Cupertino district currently uses five kits on the life cycle of butterflies, plant growth, ecosystems, experiments with plants and electric circuits. The district bought these kits with part of a $90,000 grant Hewlett-Packard awarded the district three years ago, Wiest said. The money also was used to train teachers.
The "Changes" kit has been tested in two second-grade classes at Stocklmeir School. Children appear to be fascinated with it.
During one "Changes" class conducted by schoolteacher Harlin Hansen at Stocklmeir, students perked their ears for instructions on how to create colorful mixtures.
They combined blue marbles, white salt crystals, pumpkin seeds, lima beans and powdered orange mix and faced the challenge of separating the ingredients with filters later.
Gerrare and science partner Rachel Will created a homogeneous mixture--a solution of water, the powered orange powder and alum powder. Along the way, they found out about the properties of the ingredients.
As a way of making sure they absorbed the lesson, Hansen asked each child to write about his or her experiment in a science journal.
Will said the experiment helped her understand her surroundings better. "Gravel is found on roads and sand is found at the beach," said Will in almost a whisper amid the noise generated from other students as they went about their experiments. "It is important to know these things."
"What is neat here is that they are taking chances," Wiest said. "Scientists take risks all the time. That is how they learn about new things."
The testing of the kit started eight weeks ago and will be completed this month or in early February. On Jan. 29 and 30, a representative from the NSRC will meet with teachers who used the "Changes" kit and will use information they provide to further develop the kit before it is marketed, Wiest said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 24, 1996
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.