Wonderwise 4-H introduces you to women who have made science their career. Wonderwise 4-H provides a comprehensive instructional package that includes a video, activity book, and CD-ROM. With these kits, leaders and youth explore the world of women scientists and discover together the fun of learning about science. This curriculum is ideal for grades 4-6. There are eight different careers to explore, each having their own kit. The eight are explained below.
Sea Otter Biologist
Brenda Ballachey is a wildlife biologist in Alaska. She studies native sea otters and their marine community. Her work takes her to places like Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez oil spill to study the effects of environmental disasters on sea otter survival...Students will learn how to conduct oil spill investigations, observe and record sea otter behavior, discover how scientists track sea otters and try it out themselves.
Pollen Detective
Peg Bolick, Ph.D., is a botanist who specializes in pollen. She searches for pollen in the remains of fossil animals to learn more about events in the prehistoric past. She also researches present-day pollen and the role it plays in human allergies...Students will learn about plant parts, dissect a flower to find pollen, analyze a pollen sample to find what triggers allergies in some people, design and build flowers to attract pollinators, and dig for ancient pollen in artificial rocks.
Rainforest Ecologist
Janalee Caldwell is a biologist and a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She studies poison frogs and other amphibians in the Amazon rainforest to learn how they live and interact with other species in this intensely competitive world...Students will test the strength and fat content of different nuts, design backgrounds to make poison frogs disappear and standout, construct a sturdy rainforest tree from scratch, and create a rainforest.
Parasite Sleuth
Judy Sakanari is a Japanese American parasitologist. She investigates worms and other parasites that live inside marine animals. Her work takes her to fish markets, sushi bars, and seal colonies in search of parasites that cause diseases in animals and humans...Students will create a parasite, make and dissect an Ascaris worm, solve mysterious diseases by finding the problem parasites, and unravel the stages of a developing tapeworm in a life-size human gut.
African Plant Explorer
Fatimah Jackson is an African American biologist and anthropologist. She studies common African plants that have remarkable uses as food and medicine. Her work takes her to many African countries and to local foods such as cassava, which guards against outbreaks of malaria. She takes samples of these foods back to the lab and investigates their chemical makeup to learn how they work their magic...Students will discover poisons in everyday foods, examine chemical properties of starch, use cassava to batik African symbols onto cloth in a two-day activity, and follow the world travels of common foods throughout history.
Urban Ecologist
Carmen Sid, Ph.D., is a Cuban American ecologist. She studies urban wetlands and how to keep them healthy. Her work takes her to a small wetland in Connecticut where she keeps track of plant and animal diversity. She also works with other scientists, who study insect life and water quality in the pond...Students will use ears and then eyes to sharpen their observations, learn how to test the health of their environment, predict and then test the strategies that seeds use to travel, create a water bug and use it to explore the effects of water pollutants, and make a watershed to learn about toxic runoff into lakes and streams.
Space Geologist
Adriana Ocampo, Ph.D., searches through Belize and neighboring Mexico for traces of a crater caused by an asteroid that hit earth 65 million years ago. As a space geologist, Adriana compares craters that exist on other planets with ones that are known to exist on Earth. Her discovery helped scientists prove that an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs...Students will learn what a space geologist does and the anatomy of an impact, make an impact and investigate how craters take shape, test the effects of weather on the surface of craters, explore Earth's history from their shoulders to their fingertips, and create a set of strata, take a core sample, and learn how to read the past.
Vet Detective
Tolani Francisco, DVM, travels Native American reservations to check on the health of bison and elk. Her challenge is to stop the spread of animal diseases using the science behind traditional Native values. Tolani's work in veterinary medicine takes her all over the world to help native people protect their wildlife and their land...Students will explore how close people can safely get to animals, learn how to make sense of their behavior, take their vital signs and compare their data to the vital signs of other animals, compare animal digestive systems and then simulate the process of digesting grass.
