Science Night at Cambridge Campus of Anoka-Ramsey Community College Features Science Museum of Minnesota’s President.

In a lively one-hour talk at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) Cambridge Campus this week, science education advocate Dr. Eric Jolly delivered a simple but powerful message: Science belongs in our daily lives, not on a pedestal.

Jolly, who currently serves as president of the Science Museum of Minnesota, used storytelling and show-and-tell to demonstrate why science is a natural and important focus for children. He referred back to his own childhood, explaining that he owed much of his enthusiasm for science to his Cherokee grandmother’s tireless efforts to explain the natural world, and to his parents’ answering “Go figure it out!” to his frequent question “Why?”

In a simple demonstration of how children can experience science, Jolly wove a traditional Cherokee double-walled basket as he spoke. A craft taught to Jolly at age four by his grandmother, basket weaving offers many connections to math and science, he said. For instance, he explained, the patterns of the woven reeds display such mathematical concepts as parallelism, perpendicularity, and the relationship of area to volume. Likewise, the process of weaving demonstrates such scientific concepts as tensional stress and elastic limit, and the dyes used for coloring the reeds teach about osmosis, dialysis, and absorption.

Jolly asserted that children have a deep experience with and understanding of science - we just need to excite and engage their natural curiosity. In this way, we can equip them with an informed ability to choose science as a career.

Jolly recalled another defining moment when a teacher had his class fill two mason jars with water. One they left inside, the other they placed outside in the cold winter air. The next morning, they found the jar inside looking exactly as they had left it, while the one outside was broken to pieces by the ice that had formed overnight. They spent the morning studying the broken glass and talking about why it happened. “That was exciting stuff to me,” Jolly said.

“Science is the future for our children,” Jolly summed up.

The free event was attended by an audience of more than 70, which included 45 area public school science teachers, who had been specially invited by the ARCC Science Faculty to come and share a dinner with Jolly prior to his talk.