Science

Leslie Davis is exploring new territory in science, but she doesn’t work in a lab. Opening Saturday at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana is “Regeneration,” a multi-artist exhibit celebrating advances in stem-cell research. Davis is the exhibit’s curator and featured artist. The exhibit is dedicated to the newly opened Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at UC Irvine. The research lab is named after Bill Gross, co-founder of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., and his wife.

Jimmy Stroup On a floor covered with the residue of experiments past, a dozen eager scientists between the ages of 5 and 9 spent their mornings making Tootsie rolls, sidewalk chalk, chromatographic shirts and even slime. Under careful supervision, of course. Carl Johnson, a 21-year-old senior at UC Irvine, leads one of the Radical Reactions classes offered through the Newport Beach Recreation Services department. The classes aim to make learning the fundamentals of science fun as well as educational.

The science curriculum in Janet Sugiyama's fifth-grade class just keeps getting smaller and smaller. To start the year off, her students studied astronomy and earth science, learning about the solar system and the origins of weather. In spring, the focus turned to smaller objects ? humans ? and the different organs that make up their bodies. Now, Sugiyama has turned to the tiniest subject matter in the world. Armed with dried beans, rice, marshmallows, toothpicks and plenty of Elmer's Glue, her students spent the last week in class creating models of atoms and molecules.

While most of the national news touching Costa Mesa lately has been about the city's immigration plan, its congressman has been relegated to the inside pages. But Rep. Dana Rohrabacher may claim headlines in early 2007, if, as he's hoping, he's named chairman of the House science committee. Rohrabacher led the subcommittee on space and aeronautics for eight years, and he's been a member of the science committee since he was elected to Congress nearly 18 years ago. "That was my first committee assignment.

It's the pastime of thousands of children. It's the irritant of parents who foot the grocery bill. But at Newport Heights Elementary School last week, it was science, pure and simple. In the multipurpose room during lunch on Tuesday, one class after another filed in to do the classic fizzy science experiment: combining baking soda and vinegar. When the two substances are combined, they create salt, which stays at the bottom of the cup, and soda water, which releases carbon dioxide.

It's been a golden month for science in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District — and after the 20th annual Harbor Heritage Run on Saturday, it may get even brighter. Every year, the Newport Harbor High School PTA holds the race on the campus track to raise funds for the school. With Newport Harbor planning to overhaul its science computer lab in the coming months, the parent organizers will divert Saturday's proceeds to buying new computers and software for the facility.

Four Costa Mesa High School seniors will participate in the 2007 Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement USA National Engineering Design Competition, held at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, where they will compete against teams from eight states. It's the first time a high school team affiliated with Cal State Fullerton's program has advanced to a national competition, according to a press release statement issued by the program's 6-12th grade director, Vonna Hammerschmitt.

Students in Ensign Intermediate School’s Marine Studies Club have been working on saving local waterways, removing one plastic fork at a time. The after-school club at the Newport Beach middle school is participating in the Southern California Science Fair Project competition, sponsored by the Quicksilver Foundation and USC’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. This year’s competition is challenging more than 100 middle and high school teams to create, conduct and make conclusions on self-designed science projects.

For most of us, our study of science consists of high school or college courses. While our formal instruction usually ends there, the influence that science exerts on our daily lives does not. So, where should the scientifically minded turn for information about these forces? Here are a few books at the Newport Beach Public Library that are both fun and informative about the physical world around us.  Ira Flatow is a veteran NPR science correspondent and host of a popular science radio program.

Quantum mechanics and physical chemistry student Stephen Shinjiro Sasaki loves teaching, but he isn't interested in rushing through the curriculum to meet rigorous state standards. So when he finished UC Irvine's Cal Teach program, which trains math and science teachers, he started his own course that allows him to spread his passion for science to kids, but also go in-depth about higher-level science topics. "I wanted to make the program because essentially I could do all the fun things," said Sasaki, who aspires to become a UCI professor.

If you are reading this, somewhere right now, a librarian is smiling in satisfaction over a job well done. To further promote the love of reading — a chief tenet of the librarian code — in all age groups, the Newport Beach Public Library is hosting a full week of free programming in observance of National Library Week, Sunday through April 14, at branches throughout the city. "The goal for any of our programs is to bring people into our branches and make them aware of what we have to offer," Youth Services Manger Debbie Walker said.

It started like any other flag deck at Killybrooke Elementary School on Friday, but after a performance by the school band and the pledge of allegiance, the Costa Mesa school's sixth-grade students received an exciting surprise. "All of us are going to camp," Principal Lorie Hoggard announced. "With Rock Harbor's donation we have met our goal. We're all going now. " Thanks to a $4,200 donation from Costa Mesa's Rock Harbor Church, Killybrooke can cover the remaining costs to send its students to sixth-grade science camp this March at Arrowhead Ranch Each student also received a blue camp sweatshirt that they quickly donned.

NEWPORT BEACH - The kindergartners began the event with cheers and big smiles on their cute-as-a-button faces. The 5- and 6-year-olds ran around the track, getting high-fives from Newport Beach firefighters and Corona del Mar High School cheerleaders and songleaders, as well as some approving applause from parents boogieing to the beats. "I was running fast because I wanted my parents to be proud of me," said Micayla Willis, her cheeks pink after the run. The Friday afternoon jog-a-thon might be standard at most elementary schools around the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, but it was Eastbluff Elementary School's first.

COSTA MESA — A small group of parents this week urged the Newport-Mesa Unified school board to cover the expense of sixth-grade science camp. One presented trustees with a petition urging the district to continue absorbing the costs. "I know you are strapped for money, but can't you find the money this year to provide for the sixth-graders that want to go this year?" said Martha O'Mara, a fifth-grade teacher. After a staff report on funding the camp, school board Trustee Katrina Foley made a motion to put the issue on the next meeting's agenda for discussion, but the motion was met with silence.

School board member Katrina Foley wants Newport-Mesa Unified to reallocate $200,000 from its administrative budget to help fund sixth-grade science camp programs. "This is an example of when we need to provide supplemental funding," said Foley. "Otherwise there are several schools in Costa Mesa that won't be able to attend, and that's a disparity in the district that we can't allow. " In particular, Wilson, California, Adams and Pomona elementary schools have expressed concerns about raising the money, said Susan Astarita, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

"Imagine what if and what will be?" This was the question asked by organizers of the Discovery Science Center's annual fundraising dinner last week, which welcomed some 400 community activists and raised more than $500,000 for science education in Orange County. The massive event was chaired with style by Jeff and Andrea Reeves . The event honored major donors Microsemi Corporation, represented by Jim Peterson , and philanthropist Paul Folino and his corporation Emulex, for their unwavering support.

NEWPORT BEACH — Two Sage Hill School science classes recently attained a college graduate-level achievement — their research published by an international scientific database. Accelerated biology teacher Tyler Zarubin's students decoded the DNA of two species of — you guessed it — sage plants on campus and documented the plant's genetic sequence for the gene involved in the breakdown of sugar, a particular gene that has never been researched. "I want to teach them like a scientist, not a student," Zarubin said.

While on a walk around Newport Dunes recently, I was brought up short by the sight of a majestic bird perched on a post on Back Bay Drive. After a few minutes, it took wing, and as it flew overhead, I could see a fish clutched in its talons. I would soon learn that the bird I spotted was an osprey — likely the male partner of a pair that nests at the Back Bay Science Center. No doubt it was bringing a meal home to its chicks. That I was able to enjoy such a splendid sight is thanks to the staff at the science center, a gem of a facility where scientists and students study marine ecology and promote conservation.

COSTA MESA — Taio Cruz' radio hit "Dynamite" set the rhythm to shake it. A small group of soon-to-be first-graders shook their stuff and a small plastic bottle filled with toilet paper and water as they made paper pulp. The shaking was just the first step to making paper — a process that includes using small screens to drain it and press it, and sponges to absorb any extra water. The science experiment was one of a series on paper and wood the kindergarten class had completed.