AP biology students tour the University of Washington
March 24, 2009
By Laura Geggel
In a small room lined with copper, Dr. Eric Chudler asked Mount Si High School students how many nerve cells were in the human brain.
A million? A billion? How about a trillion?
“Nope,” he answered cheerfully to each guess.
“One hundred billion?” tried senior Gillian Kenagy.
Chudler awarded her with a stress-ball brain keychain, which she immediately secured to her sweatshirt zipper. A human brain has more nerve cells than most animals — an octopus has 300 million and a honeybee only has 950,000.
As he talked more about the brain, Chudler explained why his laboratory was lined with copper. He measures electronic signals emitted from nerve cells, called neurons. Every time a neuron has an electrical spike called an action potential, it sends a signal. The copper around his lab prevents external electrical noise from interfering with his meticulous measurements.
As a research associate professor in the UW Department of Bioengineering and an adjunct research associate professor in the UW Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, Chudler had much to tell students about the brain. In fact, he had several to show to the students.
He pulled several brains enclosed in Ziploc bags out of a tub to exhibit the difference in size between a human brain and the brain of a monkey, cat, rat and bird.
“Look at how smooth that is,” Chudler said, pointing to the rat brain. Brains store information in the brain’s folds, but “for a rat, what you see is what you get,” Chudler said.
The nine Mount Si juniors and seniors inched forward to get a good look at the specimens. This is the third year Mount Si science teacher Andrew Rapin has taken a class to the University of Washington Health Sciences Tour. Every month, more than 300 high school classes from the Pacific Northwest tour the science programs at the UW, meeting with researchers and learning about their work.
Rapin scheduled the tour during WASL week to minimize the amount of missed class. Students began their day by watching the informational video, “Touring the University of Washington Health Sciences Center,” which gave a brief foray into the university’s six schools within health sciences, including the schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, social work, public health and nursing.
“I didn’t know so much stuff was going on,” said junior Abbie Grimstad, after she learned about work on zebra fish genomes, genetic counseling, graduate student trips to third world countries and more.
After the movie, their tour guide led them to the first stop: the embryology collection. Only a few such collections exist in the United States. The UW’s Dr. Richard Blandau collected embryos and fetuses from miscarriages so he could teach his students about the different stages of human development, before techniques like ultrasound became mainstream.
Former nurse and volunteer Marilyn Lewis pointed to images of fetal development and asked students several questions.
“Does anyone know why the heart is so far down in the abdomen?” Lewis asked.
“It has something to do with the nutrients in the umbilical cord,” Grimstad answered correctly.
By eight weeks, most of the fetus’ organs have developed. Lewis hammered in the point that development is fragile. Mothers who drink or smoke can harm their children.
“Smoking constricts things,” Lewis said. “If this is a smoker mom, do you think this little embryo is going to be getting the oxygen it needs? I’ve seen babies go through nicotine withdrawal and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
Even secondhand smoke is dangerous. Researchers have traced factors influencing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to smoking. Senior Stephanie Burk said she took note, especially since one of her friends is pregnant and has yet to kick her smoking habit.
Students next went to Chudler’s lab and learned about his research into Parkinson’s disease. They spent the rest of the day touring the UW greenhouses, the Miller Seed Vault, and the Center for Urban Horticulture, all of which tied into their unit on plant evolution.
“I really enjoyed it,” senior Shivani Dave said. “I’m really into the brain and how it works. I’m going into psychology later. It kind of opened my eyes a little.”
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