Incredible, edible science

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.

The food-related projects were the first part of the class’ unit on matter, which also involves a study of the periodic table and common elements. On Thursday, Sugiyama gave her students worksheets with eight molecules and told them to fill in the atoms with different-colored marshmallows: white for hydrogen, yellow for sodium, and so on. The toothpicks, which held the marshmallows together, represented bonds.

“This is the most interesting study, because all the molecules are made up of so many things, and then you have to study those things,” Nick Gomez, 11, said.

Earlier in the week, Sugiyama’s class made diagrams of atoms by gluing dried beans and rice to sheets of construction paper. As a follow-up, they learned about the ways atoms combine to create water, helium, propane and other well-known substances.

To help the students piece together their molecules, Sugiyama offered what she called the “HONC rule” ? a way of remembering how many bonds each atom can have. Hydrogen, the lowest atom on the scale, had one bond, followed by two for oxygen, three for nitrogen and four for carbon.

Robert Murtha, 11, said he didn’t plan to be a scientist ? his dream is to play for the Oakland Raiders ? but he still got a kick out of learning the intricate parts of the world.

“This is really fun because I’ve never done this before, and I’m really interested to learn new stuff,” he said.

Sugiyama, who has taught for three years at the UC Irvine Summer Science Institute, said she got the idea for the marshmallow project last summer. Once the students were finished, she said, she would coat the projects with hairspray so they could hang on the classroom wall without rotting.

“I have extras they can eat, but not these,” she said.dpt.11-itc-2-CPhotoInfoHM1PQQSN20060411ixip68ncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Above, Maria Tapia, 10, connects marshmallows with a toothpick to form a model of a molecule. At right, Carla Zambrano, 10, makes a model of a methane molecule in science class at Killybrooke Elementary. dpt.11-itc-1-CPhotoInfoHM1PQQV020060411ixip5lncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Above, Maria Tapia, 10, connects marshmallows with a toothpick to form a model of a molecule. At right, Carla Zambrano, 10, makes a model of a methane molecule in science class at Killybrooke Elementary.