U.S. Navy photo by Doug Davant Tom Palathra, a IHDIV chemical engineer, shows Southern Maryland students the differences in water. Palathra is the coordinator for NDEP.

~ Noted Industrialist Clay P. Bedford

Creating curiosity in young minds, especially in pursuit of science, technology, engineering and math disciplines (STEM subjects), is the goal of the National Defense Education Program. And that goal was on full display last week in Charles County’s Chapel Point State Park as chemical engineers and scientists from the Indian Head Division (IHDIV) Naval Surface Warfare Center helped middle school students from Lexington Park and Spring Ridge learn more about how life sciences and technology can be used to help save the greater Chesapeake Bay.

Coordinating the event was Tom Palathra, a chemical engineer for IHDIV. He was joined by technical colleagues Wally Pannick, Heather Zdobysz, Dr. Jerry Forbes—all of whom work for the division’s Research (R) Dept.—and Kenny Seminuk an intern student from the University of Maryland. Also helping were volunteers from the Port Tobacco River Conservancy, the Charles Soil Conservation District, plus teachers and parents from the two schools.

The curricula for ‘‘Save the Bay,” in melding life sciences together with robotics and STEM subjects, was designed by Dr. Ray Gamache, an IHDIV physicist and National Defense Education Program pioneer featured prominently on the NDEP home page as one of the program’s personal profiles.

‘‘Basically what we did is work with teachers to create a relative challenge for students to use science and technology and later robotics, then relating it to the on-going Save the Bay campaign,” Gamache said. ‘‘The important thing was to grab the students while they were young to develop their curiosity for science and mathematics before they began to get into puberty...and I believe that is the key because when you get them interested (in STEM) while they are young it tends to stay with them,” he said.

Accordingly, the IHDIV NSWC emphasis last week on the 3rd, 5th and 7th grades as they went through hands-on demonstrations with scientific experts on how such things as agricultural fertilizers, soil run off, pollution and other factors affect the greater Bay and its tributaries.

Palathra, for instance, showed students how water chemistry contrasted from the Port Tobacco River when compared to potable drinking sources as the engineer told the how algae, when invigorated by fertilizers, can proliferate into eventually becoming a ‘‘dead zone” in creeks and streams choking off vital life-giving oxygen.

‘‘What we’re trying to do is get these students aware of the problems with the Bay then tying them (into STEM subjects) as an approach to solving them,” Palathra explained. ‘‘Today they’ll also be seining for fish, conducting soil samples and doing a trash survey as they comb the beach for litter and debris,” added Pannick, who said the school with the most trash collected would get an ice cream treat in their class, courtesy of IH DIV’s engineers, later this autumn.

The St. Mary’s County middle school teachers on the field trip agreed that these kinds of demonstrations and mentoring by scientists more than augmented classroom science teaching.

‘‘This is invaluable as a learning tool,” said Spring Ridge Middle School science teacher Peg Johnson. ‘‘These students are getting the kind of hands on outdoor instruction they cannot get in classes.”

Especially apparent was the outdoor fish seining. Using a 100-foot seine, Port Tobacco River Conservancy volunteers captured minnows and smaller fry for the students to examine then tried to identify with the use of a pictured handout. Among the species caught were bluefish, varieties of trout and bass, croaker, drum, catfish, and sunfish such as white and yellow perch.

Along with fish seining, pupils also used a soil auger to learn how to identify the different kinds of soils that dominate Southern Maryland.

Jerry Spence of the Charles Soil Conservation District showed the students the different profiles of soils found at the Chapel Point area and how they could affect water runoff to the Bay.

‘‘This area is an ancient sea bed,” he said. ‘‘It is very good for growing crops as soil river sediments settled here long ago but also the water table here is close to the surface so we have to be careful about what we use on these soils.”

IHDIV’s contribution to the NDEP’s drive will continue throughout this academic year with the featured robotics contests slated later this spring. Dr. Gamache said that there also is an after-school program planned for the greater Southern Maryland school districts in which technological volunteers will help mentor kids interested in pursuing STEM subjects.