Professors bring WSU to Arlington High School
Arlington High students get a hands-on look at careers
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Dan Bates / The Herald
As snow falls outside Arlington High School on Monday, students are treated to a lively class called “The outdoors as your office: Make a career out of playing outside.” WSU extension service educator Kevin Zobrist points out the droopy top of a Western hemlock. Asking students if they knew why it drooped, Zobrist answered “it knows it’ll never be a cool as a Douglas fir.”
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Dan Bates / The Herald
Ashley Grice (left) and Alexis Lewis hold preserved human brains while other students put on gloves during an Arlington High School class by WSU neuroscience professor David Rector on Monday.
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Dan Bates / The Herald
Arlington High School students get a close view of a human brain from WSU neuroscience professor David Rector as part of ImagineU@WSU on Monday.
For Arlington High School students Jessie Rard, Samantha Westerwelle and Robert Haynes, however, the moment was wonderful.
Rector visited the high school Monday as part of university’s traveling program called “ImagineU@WSU.”
During the week of Thanksgiving, WSU students and faculty take time from their holiday break to visit a few high schools around the state. The idea is that the high schoolers will get a taste of college life and be encouraged to apply. And not just to WSU.
Samantha, 16, and a junior, hopes to study math at Montana State University.
“It’s so cool that the high school brought these professors here,” she said. “They are very knowledgeable in their fields. It was like having college classes for a day.”
The brain is the most amazing of all human organs and probably the most complex thing in the universe, Rector told the students. “It has so much electricity that if you could put the brain’s neurons end to end and somehow hook them up to your mouth, you could light a 60-watt bulb.”
As he touched the brain in various sections, Rector asked students to help him identify the parts and their functions.
Jessie, 16, and a junior, offered that the frontal lobe directs decision-making. Correct, Rector said.
“So perhaps you have heard of frontal lobotomies,” the professor said. “That’s when a doctor goes up through the eye socket and cuts the front part of the brain.”
While one girl covered her eyes, Jessie just smiled.
“I love science. These presentations from WSU are awesome,” she said. “I plan to attend the National Circus School of Montreal after I graduate, but science is my backup.”
Robert, a 15-year-old sophomore, said that while he plans to study chemistry in college, he enjoyed being exposed to new ideas.
The university’s outreach will encourage many students who might not otherwise have considered college in their future, said Arlington chemistry teacher Deanna Vaughn.
Other ImagineU@WSU class topics included “the outdoors as your office,” “aliens in your backyard” and university athletics, as well as how to apply for and pay for college.
Four current WSU students who are Arlington alumni also were on hand Monday to talk with Arlington students and hand out red T-shirts from the university.
Zach Tankersley, Laurel and Lindsay Graves and Sarah Monzel were accompanied by Lake Stevens grad and fellow WSU student Anthony Smith.
“What we do is encourage people to see that they can make it to college,” Tankersley said. “Today it’s fun for us to be back at Arlington.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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