Don't Drink the BTB

Diagram provided by Benjah-bmm27

Today the 5th grade class I'm observing as research for my masters degree was AWESOME!!! Thank you Ms. McHale's students!

We did a hands-on experiment where they used Bromothymol Blue (BTB) to observe the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in water and how that level changed over time - a nice elodea plant was good enough to take in the CO2 and return O2 to the water.

Bromothymol Blue pH indicator dye in an acidic, neutral, and alkaline solution (left to right) provided by bfesser.

The kids are amazing. Super excited. All of them (with the exception of a few) stayed on target with the steps of the lab. It's awesome to be able to volunteer and help them out with the steps of the lab and offer advice and answer questions.


I can definitely see how and why science education gets the short end of the time stick. It takes dedication to want to set-up, execute and take down experiments. BUT, the enthusiasm and engagement of students demonstrates to me that science can succeed in the classroom. The right resources need to be provided to elementary teachers.

Thank you Wikipedia for the photos. Wikimedia Commons RULES!

Science is Cool!

I've been sitting in on a 5th grade class at Allen Elementary to observe how science it currently taught. It's been very educational and will greatly help in crafting my master's degree final project.

I'm excited at working to solve a problem in California schools; the lack of science education they get per week. According to a report earlier in the year, students are lucky to get 1 hour of science education a week. 1 hour!?!


The United States of America needs more engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and many many other types of science/math people. It keeps us economically competative. It also benefits society by increasing the number of individuals who can successfully listen to, analyze and draw conclusions from the enormous amount of media we're bombarded with daily.

I believe that most Americans need these skills in order to:

• protect themselves from being taken advantage of (i.e. consumer debt)
• challenge their governing bodies/institutions (i.e. civil rights infringment sanctioned by legislation such as the Patriot Act) and


• help advance humanity in a positive direction through better decision making (i.e. choosing to use mass transit instead of driving, paying more for "green" products instead of products that use destructive chemicals and manufacturing processes).

While my project focuses on a specific aspect of science education, increasing it, I hope that it has far reaching effects upon society and people.