The science of learning about life

I walked a couple of steps past the baby because I thought he was part of a science display.

He was a doll, but a living one and not part of the project.

His mother was one of hundreds of students showing their work at the Student Bio Expo on Monday at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.

The newborn did reinforce a central idea behind the expo — that biology isn't abstract. It's the stuff of life and all of us should know something about it.

"Not every student is going to be a scientist, but science will be important in all their lives," Jeanne Chowning said during a luncheon.

Chowning was at the table when the idea for an expo was first conceived 10 years ago. Chowning is the education director for the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research in Seattle. Then, she was a teacher at Juanita High School and part of the small group — including a researcher from Immunex (acquired by Amgen in 2002) — that came up with the idea. They wanted a project that would build relationships between lab and classroom and improve the public's understanding of what researchers do.

Volunteers ran the program for five years before Chowning brought it under the umbrella of the research association. Over the past decade, 2,554 high-school students have participated.

It is a year-round program. Researchers spend time in schools and some serve as mentors for individual students. Teachers and scientists form lasting connections. Students who go into the sciences start with a network of contacts.

Students who don't make science their careers have a better understanding of how it works.

The baby's mother, Satori Butler is a 10th-grader at Cleveland High School taking honors biology.

Her project, like those of many students, grew out of a desire to understand a disease that has profoundly affected her life.

In 1996, colon cancer killed Butler's mother. The disease usually affects people over 50, but her mother was barely in her 30s when she was diagnosed.

Genetics and diet played a role in the early onset of the disease. Butler and her three brothers should have been tested, but the aunt they went to live with didn't know how the disease worked.

One of her older brothers was later diagnosed with colorectal cancer and died three years ago.

"You just scratch the surface of some kid's story and there is a lot behind it," Chowning said.

Chowning, who has degrees in art and biology, helped design a program that allows students to express themselves.

Students have to do their research and get the science right, but there is latitude in how they present it, including categories such as drama, music, art, creative writing and journalism.

Asher Wycoff, of Garfield High, produced a hilarious cartoon of a doctor delivering a diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Wycoff sang and played the guitar, piano and harmonica.

Lizzie Gore, of Ballard High, choreographed and danced a ballet representing DNA replication.

The performers also wrote papers.

Most of the participants were from Seattle or the Eastside, but Mario Godoy-Gonzalez brought his students all the way from Royal City, a tiny town in Eastern Washington. It's his ninth year.

"This is a wonderful event," he said. The program gets his kids thinking about college. "I see them flourish.

"We have six students coming to the UW this year and most of these kids are the children of migrants," he said.

Godoy-Gonzalez is an ESL teacher drafted into teaching science. He and his students explore it together, and, with the help of the sources he's found and contacts he's made through the program, he said there's no question that they can't answer together.

At the end of the day Cleveland teacher Amy Baeder huddled with her students in a hallway at Meydenbauer. The students cheered Butler, who was clutching two ribbons and crying.

Her essay and video interview with a Fred Hutchinson researcher earned an honorable mention, and she won an inspiration award.

I think the baby smiled.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.