Biologist Helps Students Get a Leg Up on Scientific Inquiry

摘要

Scott McRobert's research on how temperature affects the development o&toads gives second-graders a chance to dip into real science. Elizabeth places a small plastic cup filled with water on an electronic weighing machine and presses a button to adjust its reading to zero. With help from amphibian biologist Scott McRobert, the 7-year-old dips a fishnet into a bucket swarming with tadpoles and brings up a wriggling specimen that she then nudges into her cup. After recording the animal's weight on a white sheet, she holds the cup aloft against the light to examine the tadpole's body as it swims around. "It's in stage 2 of development," she announces proudly to McRobert, observing that the animal's hind legs have just begun to bud.