For the past 29 years, professor emeritus Dr. Steven Oppenheimer at California State University, Northridge’s Department of Biology has carried on his goal of getting younger students involved in the sciences.
Since 1995, K-12 students and teachers have published their research in The New Journal of Student Research Abstracts, created by Oppenheimer with hopes of instilling a curiosity in science beyond the classroom.
According to Oppenheimer, it is important that students get involved early for the United States to further advance in the scientific field.
“To get students involved in research early, that’s important for the country,” Oppenheimer said. “Our country is great in science and having the students do research early helps.”
Terri Miller, a retired teacher who has been a part of the journal for more than 20 years agrees that fostering a love for the discipline early is crucial for the development of science in the US.
“If the kids are interested in science early, that special spark of enthusiasm for science is born,” Miller said. “The kids often go into science related fields such as medicine, and some will even become science researchers.”
She said students who have been involved with these scientific journals return every year with an even more strong and active interest in what they can do in this field.
“The younger kids that have done a research project before are more interested in science in general and are more open to learning a lot of new things about science. Some of them become very creative and even magical in their responses.” Miller said.
Students exposed early often continue pursuing science on their own when the time comes for college. Oppenheimer said that advancements in the field begin in the classroom when young students become immersed.
For some students, science is something they’ve always had an interest in, and the program allows for a supportive environment where they can continue to explore and test if that is something they could see themselves pursuing in the future.
Elizabeth Watson, a member at the Boys and Girls Club in Laughlin, Nevada, aspires of being a marine biologist. Since doing the research journals, she is set on pursuing the profession. “Doing this kind of hands-on science just makes me more excited about it. It’s like, ‘Yes, this is totally what I want to do.’”
Watson first heard about this at her Teen Center, where Miller would join in for the summer to kickstart these experiments.
“We’d do these big experiments that lasted for weeks. It wasn’t just a quick thing you finish in an hour, we actually had to keep working on it, watch it change, and stick with it. That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, this is actually pretty cool,’” Watson said. “It made science feel less like schoolwork and more like something fun we were figuring out together.”
“Even when things don’t go as planned, you still learn something, and sometimes the ‘wrong’ results end up being the most interesting.”
These various experiments give students the necessary tools to pursue science in a safe, encouraging setting and allows an opportunity for them to develop problem-solving skills that can be used outside the classroom.
Oppenheimer says he is honored by the opportunity to collaborate with these dedicated teachers in pursuit of their shared goal of getting students to harbor a future interest in science careers. “I think all students should try research, because you never know who’s going to be great.”