In a chemistry lab at a Harford County high school yesterday, students described their complex science projects.
Ashley Larsen is studying nerve and cardiac damage caused by chemical weapons. Aaron League built a wind tunnel to test air velocity on cars. Brian Herget is researching the effect of temperature on combustion engines.
"This is like talking to college professors," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said of the high school seniors.
Maryland's senior senator has long championed the Science and Math Academy, in its fourth year as a magnet "school within a school" at Aberdeen High School in Harford County.
And she has helped sustain it with federal funds, including the $300,000 grant she announced at the school yesterday. The grant, which brings to $1 million the federal funds allocated to the school, will pay for technology upgrades, educational conferences for teachers and enrichment field trips for students, she said.
"I watched this grow from a dream to a dream team," she said.
C. Warren Mullins, vice president of Battelle Science and Technology International and an academy supporter, said, "To grow Maryland's economy, we need facilities that can develop a skilled labor force. Instead of working at McDonald's in the summer, these kids can just as easily do internships with industry."
The academy occupies the top floor of the high school building and provides classes in research and technology for about 200 students. The school many originally considered an experiment has received nearly 150 applications for next year's 50 slots. Its seniors have won acceptance to some of the nation's most prestigious universities.
"A leap of faith is what comes to mind, when this all started, especially for our parents," Herget said. "But it has all worked out so well."
The curriculum builds to a senior research project, which each student designs and develops with a mentor who might be employed at the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, at Battelle or at McCormick & Co. Inc.
"This program really teaches students how to be a scientist or an engineer," said Rob Lieb, a physicist at the Army lab who is mentoring League. "It helps them take academic learning and put it into a real world situation. They learn communication, interaction and how to get things done."
When League needed a larger measuring device, Lieb took him to the post's wind tunnel to complete the experiment.
"These kids have labs in their own backyard where they can actually do their experiments," Lieb said of APG's facilities.
League, who expects to study mechanical engineering at Drexel University in the fall, said, "I feel really more prepared for college than if I had taken regular high school classes."
Harford educators see the academy as a model for similar magnet programs, such as the one in agriculture set for North Harford High School. Mikulski would like to replicate the academy in other Maryland counties, particularly those close to military installations.
Such educational ventures will help Maryland prepare for the nationwide military expansion, known as BRAC, that will bring thousands of jobs to APG and Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, she said.
"As we get ready for BRAC, we need roads and utilities, but we also need human infrastructure," Mikulski said. "BRAC will bring jobs that will never leave Maryland."
She said she hopes that many of the students in the lab yesterday will come back to the academy as mentors.
"We need your talent, your education and your ideas," she said.
mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com