The Black and White

by Emilia Koopman

On March 25, Brown University hosted its annual STEM day in its chemistry labs. Providence High Schools, including Times Squared, Central, Jorge Alvarez, Jeanita Sanchez, and Providence Career & Technical Academy, and Pilgrim were invited to attend.

Pilgrim teachers Mrs.Reynolds (Biology) and Mrs. Bizragane (Chemistry) took forty biology and chemistry students to the event. The day started with a Q&A panel of STEM graduates continuing their education at Brown University. Melanie Ortiz Alvarez Del Campa, Alex Del Toro, Danati Selamawi, and Jack-William Barotta shared their experiences and how they ended up in the STEM field. The schools were then divided up into different breakout rooms. Each room had a graduate student showing their various interests and paths into chemistry with mini labs to do with the high school students.

The Pilgrim students had various rooms learning about rocks and minerals, iron in our food and medicine, the chemistry in photography, and the uses of polymers. In the mineral and rock room, the students got to look at different rock samples that are in everyday things. In the room about chemistry in photography, students got to make their own “photograph” with cyanotype. Cyanotype is a yellow liquid that changes to blue in light. Students put the liquid on white paper, pressed different objects onto the paper, and then let it dry in the sun. When the objects were taken off, there were yellow prints of the objects on blue-dyed paper. They also learned about the evolution of photography and film and how chemistry contributed to it. Students experimented with cereal in the room about iron in our food and medicine. They had to extract the iron from different cereals by putting the cereal in water and using a magnet to collect the iron. The students then compared the levels of iron in each cereal. The last room the Pilgrim students went into was about biological polymers. In this room, the students learned about both natural polymers and synthetic polymers and how they are used in an experiment.

At the end of the day, students were given lunch and got to learn about the summer programs at Brown for high schoolers. With the help of Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs.Bizragane, and Brown University, students who were interested in STEM were allowed to see college labs, hear from students with similar interests, and see the opportunities that majoring in science gives you.