More than 100 fifth- through eighth-graders and their teachers will gather at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder on Monday, Nov. 20, to solve the mystery of "Who Stole the Bones?" and learn new ways of making science fun.
The Science Explorers event, a part of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-BoulderÂ’s Science Discovery outreach program, will meet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Coors Events/Conference Center. The hands-on science workshops are sponsored by the Howard Hughes Initiative.
Twenty-one teams, each consisting of one teacher and five students, will tackle the mythical mystery of skeletal remains that were stolen from a ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ museum. In the first workshop, students will use forensics to determine if bones later discovered in a warehouse fire could be the stolen bones.
The students will use fingerprinting and chromatography to narrow down the suspects capable of such a heist. Students then will extract actual wheat germ DNA fragments in order to construct a DNA double helix molecule that will help them to solve the educational mystery.
Science Explorers offers innovative workshops that both intrigue and motivate students while helping them to advance their skills and understanding of science. Students receive take-home materials from Science Explorer workshops.
The program also offers teachers the opportunity to experience a new science curriculum before teaching it themselves. All teachers will receive the workshop curriculum and enough materials to replicate the workshop experiments in their own classrooms.
The Science Explorers program will visit more than 15 other locations statewide in 2000-2001, including Pueblo and Sterling.
For more information on Science Explorers call Jeanne Hagan at (303) 492-0071 or go online to .