'Science in the Summer' Program at Lower Providence Library Teaches Kids that Science is Fun

A group of rising fourth through sixth graders gathered in the Lower Providence Community Library on Wednesday to experiment with finger prints and paper chromatography as part of the Science in the Summer program sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and the Franklin Institute.

The program is a free summer event held at public libraries, where children are provided with tools, materials, and instruction.  This summer, the theme is genetics.

The children were taught on Wednesday by retired schoolteacher Bill Vosburgh, who first taught the children how to make their own fingerprint stamps and identify whether their print patterns are in the style of an arch, a loop, or a whorl. 

“It’s a fun program, and it’s fun to teach and it’s fun for the kids,” said Vosburgh.    

Vosburgh also taught the children how to do paper chromatography, explaining that each marker has a “fingerprint,” and that part of the chromatography that they were studying involves breaking the color apart after water is added.  Marker strokes and wet paper produced rows of watery, colorful ‘fingerprints’ on paper, which the children tried to match to their respective markers.     

 “It’s very interesting.  Here we get to take home everything and all of the activities aren’t boring,” said Lilly, 10.

According to Sandrah Moles, the library’s head of children services, their library branch has been participating in the program for about 27 years.  This year they had 64 children, and the program ran from July eight to July 11.  They children who participate are broken into the grades of two to three and four to six. 

“These are amazing experiments.  The kids really like them,” said Moles, who added that on opening day, children and begging and waiting at their door to obtain a spot in the program.