I've had quite a number of classes come into the flow lab over the
past few years - these have ranged from 3rd grade to high school.In
the lab we concentrate on blood, what it is, the type of cells and
what they do. Younger kids are more impressed by a bit of a laser
light show than anything else, but you can very easily associate key
concepts with the technology and kids understand better. Since we
also have a confocal, a few 3d rotations plus stereo views of cells
and tissue goes down well. It is also rather effective to have
someone take some blood and process it in a simple way (blood films,
stained slide, wet prep under the scope, run some on the flow). The
kids really like this, and only the adults get dizzy.... of course
you can't let the kids touch the samples or get near the blood for
obvious safety reasons.
I have also given a number of talks at the elementary school on
science/research etc and I take a stack of props from the lab (tissue
culture dishs, pipette tips, disposable pipettes, a lab coat,bright
colored slides, fluorescent slides, photos of people in the lab
(technologists, students, postdocs etc) - believe it or not, the
disposable gloves are the most popular item - so I give out a dozen
or so!!! The issue really is making the kids feel that science is fun
not boring.
We had a very sad incident of a child dying from leukemia - she could
not find a bone marrow donor - although difficult to discuss with
kids, they had lots of questions so I used that as an example of how
flow cytometry and research in general was important.
Regarding Cell Wars - I have not seen it, but a quick search on teh
web showed this at:
http://www.cshl.org/books/cell_wars.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------
Fran Balkwill
After reading this fully illustrated account of immune responses and
other anti-microbial reactions, a child will view illness
quite differently. He/she will have a better understanding about what
actually happens up one's nose, down one's throat, and
anywhere else that has been invaded by germs. (Ages 7-13)
Fran Balkwill, the author, is a scientist at the Biological Therapies
Laboratory at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in
London. Mic Rolph, the illustrator, is a former graphic designer at
the BBC, now working freelance.
1990, 32 fully illustrated 4-color pages
ISBN 0-00-196307-4
Paper $8.95
(Published in the U.K. by HarperCollins Publishers)
---------------------------------------------------------
Good luck
Paul
J.Paul Robinson, Purdue University Cytometry Labs
Professor of Immunopharmacology
robinson@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu PH:317-494 6449 FAX:317-494 0517
web http://www.cyto.purdue.edu