Tractor-trailer site for science experiments

‘ ‘ ‘ From the looks of it, the 70-foot tractor-trailer parked on Bigelow Boulevard outside the… ‘ ‘ ‘ From the looks of it, the 70-foot tractor-trailer parked on Bigelow Boulevard outside the Cathedral of Learning could be the roaming laboratory of a crazed professor. ‘ ‘ ‘ But Alison Slinskey Legg, director of Outreach Programs for Pitt’s biological sciences department, said the mobile laboratory contains no explosives or harmful chemicals. ‘ ‘ ‘ Instead, the mobile lab, which was unveiled yesterday, will be a teaching environment for middle and high school students and their teachers to experience college-level science. ‘ ‘ ‘ The lab will expose students to laboratory work and conduct workshops for teachers. ‘ ‘ ‘ At the unveiling, students who will regularly use the laboratory conducted several experiments while University staff and press watched. ‘ ‘ ‘ On one end of the truck, students observed worms and compared their functioning to that of complex organisms. ‘ ‘ ‘ The truck also contains an activity called Outbreak! where students evaluate evidence of an outbreak of disease. Then they decide how to investigate the outbreak and how to deal with it. ‘ ‘ ‘ Toward the middle, two students, Aliya Taylor of Riverview High School and Diatrah Stott of Upper Saint Clair High School, worked with Kristen Butela, a Pitt graduate student studying biological sciences, on a project involving DNA separation. The experiment used an electric charge to move DNA through a gel and separate larger pieces from smaller pieces by the speeds at which each moves. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We can go to students that would spend two to three hours going here and back,’ Butela said. ‘That’s two to three more hours they can spend studying.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ At the other end of the truck, microscopes allow students to look at flower and vegetables up close on television screens. ‘ ‘ ‘ David Hornack from the Outreach Program said this area was more appropriate to middle school- and elementary-aged children. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘They look at scars, at cuts and even broccoli,’ said Hornack. ‘We give them objects and ask them to make predictions about what they’ll see. Everything looks entirely different.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The modified tractor-trailer has 26 workstations at which students may participate in scientific experiments and other science activities. ‘ ‘ ‘ For the experiments, Legg promised a fair mixture of old and new science. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘The experiments will blend current science with required academic standards,’ she said. ‘ ‘ ‘ Currently, the Outreach Program reaches 4,000 students in and around Allegheny County. ‘ ‘ ‘ The project began when a teacher from Dorseyville Elementary in Fox Chapel wanted two speakers to visit the school for its ‘DNA Day,’ said Stephen Reis, Pitt’s associate vice chancellor for clinical research, Believing he could do better than that, Reis brought together the Outreach Program and other groups and borrowed a mobile laboratory inside a 40-foot bus from Boston University. ‘ ‘ ‘ After three years of different groups pushing for a mobile laboratory for Pitt, the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute purchased the laboratory for $120,000. Thermo Fisher Scientific then donated supplies and lab equipment. ‘ ‘ ‘ In the future, the lab should cost about $25,000 per year to keep in working condition. ‘ ‘ ‘ The mobile lab is one of about 40 currently existing labs of this kind in the nation. ‘ ‘ ‘ Hornack explained how younger students benefit from this type of laboratory environment. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘In high school, they learn the topic, and then they’re done,’ he said. ‘There’s more to it than that, and they can learn it here.’