Jenny’s post made me all sentimental. I started thinking back to my start in science. I didn’t have a chemistry set, nor did I like to play with insects (still don’t. Really really don’t). When I decided, for whatever reason, that I liked science (or whavetever I thought was science), I went for it, whole hog.

I carried out my first real hypothesis-driven experiment in the 9th grade. My high school was an aspiring scientist’s (read: geek) dream – we had a fully functioning, albeit under-funded, laboratory, complete with benches, flow hoods, autoclaves, various glass objects, Bunsen burners, and the rest.

The experiment was designed by myself and another student (Hi Aisha!), who to this day remains a very close friend (science bringing people together? Check), as part of a Biotechnology class. We chose to assess the effect of antioxidants on the growth of cloned African Violets. We cloned a lot of African Violets (done simply by slicing leaves into equal-ish parts under aseptic conditions) and planting the cloned pieces into sterile baby food jars containing either plain agar medium, or agar supplemented with vitamins A, C, or E.

An African Violet from my house, as a visual reference.

To quantitate the effect of the antioxidants, we decided to count (daily) the number of little baby leaves that sprouted off the cloned leaf. I am not sure why we decided that this would be an adequate metric for the health and proliferation of a cloned African violet, but there you go. We were 14. Regardless, we found that the antioxidant-containing agar produced leaves with more little leaves coming off of them. I can no longer remember if there was a difference between the different antioxidants, but there was certainly an effect. I still don’t know what it implies, or if plants even need antioxidants, or why we were studying this in the first place, but it was a wonderful experience in setting up an experiment with appropriate controls and read-out system.

My African Violet-rearing skills did not last past adolescence. The one I have at home is miserable and hates me.

Looking back, there are a number of glaring issues with this experiment. The fact that some of the vitamins we chose are not terribly water-soluble strikes me as a complication. I also doubt that the leaf pieces we cut were of absolutely equal sizes and weights, though I do remember lab coats and rulers in there somewhere. Then again, I was 14, and the nitty-gritty really didn’t matter that much.

I learned a lot from that experience, and am convinced that it made me like science. Having the opportunity to do real science in a school sold me. It wasn’t reading science out of a book, it wasn’t watching condescending videos about adults with bad hair doing science in a lab, it was actually doing science that hooked me. Thinking about it, planning it, and doing it. Not many schools have the resources that mine did, in providing kids with the opportunity to do science, but more should. It works. It makes kids like science.

P.S. We did enter the project into a school-wide science fair, but we didn’t get very far (got an Honorable Mention ribbon!). As I recall, making the poster was far more irritating that carrying out the experiment. Aaah, yes, I was a true scientist from the start.