Light Learning: Project iLASER hits Jefferson Elementary

HARLINGEN — Fourth and fifth grade students at Jefferson Elementary School got a special treat on Friday: hands-on chemistry projects with a traveling chemistry professor.
David Brown came up with the idea of traveling to border schools to teach special chemistry lessons in 2008 when the General Assembly of the United Nations named 2011 the International Year of Chemistry.
He submitted a proposal and was notified in May that he received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry.
Brown, professor of chemistry at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif., began a journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf coast to inspire children with lessons in science.
He named his idea Project iLASER, investigations with light and sustainable energy resources. Since May he has traveled from California through Arizona and New Mexico, and ended his trip in Harlingen on Friday.
Jefferson Elementary students were able to see how a solar panel creates movement with water, shined green and red laser lights through green and red gummy bears to demonstrate how we see color and the concept of complementary colors and the basic color wheel, and saw how to build solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity.
Brown has traveled to schools and Boys & Girls Clubs from El Centro, Calif., through Yuma and Nogales, Ariz., to Las Cruces, N.M., and into El Paso, McAllen and finally Harlingen.
“The kids love it,” Manuel Olivio, Jefferson Elementary principal, said Friday morning. “They have enjoyed seeing the theories they have learned about in the classroom in action.”
Brown has been journaling his travels in a blog, iyc2011.blogspot.com. He notes interesting things not only about his science projects, but also details about each border town he has visited.
Fourth- and fifth-grade students at Jefferson were not the only ones playing with science Friday. First-grade classes were experimenting with glue and water as well as learning the properties of Fruit Loops. Every student learned a little more about the world of science at Jefferson.