Photograph by Skye Dunlap

As a part of the JASON Project, Cherry Chase elementary school children made "bugs" out of left over computer parts, feathers and toothpicks. Brave kids munched on the real things at another display called the "I Ate a Bug Booth."

Jason Project feeds kids bugs for lunch

BY KELLY WILKINSON

When an Amazon rainforest is re-created at Moffett Field, there are certain inevitable differences: Crepe paper replaces leaves, the chirping frogs are plastic, and a steely hangar frame looms overhead rather than a dense forest canopy.

But the snakes are still real, draped around the necks of Bay Area students participating in the JASON Project at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field for the first two weeks in March. And so is the excitement.

This year's JASON Project will enable students from the third through 10th grades to directly communicate via satellite with scientists, students and teachers exploring a Peruvian rainforest during a comparative study of tropical, temperate and fossil rainforests. Students watch and participate in the broadcast first, then proceed to the JASON village in Hangar One for hands-on activities stemming from the broadcast.

There are stations for assembling bugs, or loose interpretations of bugs, from leftover computer parts, pipe cleaner, feathers and toothpicks. There are face-painting stations where students can choose from traditional Amazon warrior, hunting and ceremonial designs. And there is the wildly popular "I Ate a Bug Booth" where brave students can eat a chocolate-covered cricket while the more timid and defiant onlookers squeal in disgust.

Tom Clausen, educational officer at Ames, said that the rainforest broadcast and activities are the culmination of several months of a focused curriculum that led local schools into the JASON project.

"By the time they come here, they're really ready to demonstrate what they've learned and strut their stuff," he said.

Moffett is one of several dozen Primary Interactive Network (PIN) sites throughout the United States, UK, Mexico and Bermuda set up to interact with the rainforest teams. Moffett has been participating in the JASON Project for the past five years, and this year expected to host almost 15,000 students.

During the hour-long broadcast, students watch as teachers, scientists and students conduct experiments deep within, or in some cases, high above the rainforest. The demonstrations are interspersed with audience participation in quizzes and multiple choice questions, where their answers are entered into computers and beamed to all other PIN sites in the country. Students also ask scientists questions that were taped before the broadcast.

Kristine Vanvlasselaer, a fifth-grade student at Cherry Chase Elementary School, had her question broadcast to Peru, and while she said they didn't seem to really know the answer to her question, she was impressed with the broadcast.

"I thought we would be just sitting there watching the screens the whole time," she said, "but it was really cool because we could sort of talk to them through the computer and work with them."

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