Ag Science in Motion: Moving van now a classroom lab

Seventh-graders soon will step inside a converted moving van so they can mash strawberries in plastic bags.

This will be part of a lesson on DNA extraction aboard Ag in Motion, a mobile classroom that will teach the science behind food production.

The Modesto-based vehicle made its debut Wednesday morning at a gathering attended by many of the donors and volunteers who made it possible.

Inside are 20 laboratory stations where Central Valley middle-schoolers will learn about seeds, genetics, photosynthesis and other topics starting in August. The visits will cost the schools nothing.

"It's cool," said Matthew Laverty of Modesto, one of the few young people on hand, after studying mosquito life stages through a microscope. "There's a lot of different things you can do. You can look at bugs and seeds and stuff."

The vehicle was created by the group planning the Ag Science Center, an interactive museum at the Modesto Junior College West Campus. That building is some years off, but the planners are using other ways to get students thinking about careers in food production.

The $116,000 project got gifts of $50,000 from Rabobank, $46,932 from the Wal-Mart Foundation and smaller amounts from other donors.

Modesto Transfer & Storage donated the trailer, which was outfitted at Performance Trailers in Madera. Rocha Antique Trucks of Oakdale donated the 1979 Kenworth that will pull the classroom up and down the valley.

Donations still are being sought for operating costs.

Project chairman Tom Norquist said only 2 percent of U.S. residents live on farms, so children need to learn about food sources.

"We're pushing ag," he said. "We're pushing science. We're hoping to grow kids' minds."

Prescott Senior Elementary School in Modesto will get the first visit, said Michele Laverty, director of the Ag Science Center and mother of Matthew. La Loma Junior High School in Modesto and Dutcher Middle School in Turlock will follow.

Each student will spend one class period in the mobile classroom, working on one of the lesson areas and watching a video about food-related careers.

The lessons are designed to fit with state standards for science instruction in the seventh grade.

The one on extracting DNA, the molecular building blocks of living things, no doubt appeals to the 12-year-old in everyone.

"Grind up the strawberries using your fists and fingers for 1 minute," the instructions read. After that, you use a salt-soap solution, ethanol and a filter to complete the process.

Emily Covolo of Modesto, another of the young people at the unveiling, looked over a lesson kit on seeds that included a microscope, a pine cone and store-bought jars of sesame and celery seeds.

"I've never seen anything like it," she said.

More information on Ag in Motion is at www.agsciencecenter.org.

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or (209) 578-2385.