Foundation Students Show High School Visitors the Fun
of Chemistry
January 2011
Fatima Al-Baqali and Wadha Almarri demonstrate
the effect of helium on the human voice .
“Chemistry is everywhere, and in everything,” explained Fatima Al-Baqali who, together with fellow Foundation Program student Wadha Almarri, recently shared their enthusiasm for chemistry with 22 visiting high school students from the Amna Bint Wahab High School in Doha.
The purpose of their presentation was to inspire the high school students by showing the science behind such fun items as Pop Rocks candy, glow sticks and disappearing ink.
Most of the high school students knew inhaling helium raises the pitch of one’s voice, as Fatima demonstrated to the group. Few, however, were aware that sulfur hexafluoride has the opposite effect until the girls showed a video of a man inhaling some of the gas and speaking in a deep voice “like Darth Vader.”
The entertaining demonstration made the visitors much more receptive to learning the scientific principle behind it (the weight of each gas and resulting resistance on the vocal cords).
They also appreciated hearing from students only a year or two ahead of them, and jumped at the opportunity to ask questions about chemistry, the Foundation Program curriculum, and the average day of a WCMC-Q student.
“Students find talking to someone their age easier and much more comfortable because we think in the same way, rather than someone older who won’t always get what they mean,” said Wadha, herself a recent graduate of Amna Bint Wahab High School.
“My school was always supportive throughout my years there, so speaking to its students is the least I could do to express my gratitude,” she added.
Typically, students visiting WCMC-Q are treated to a tour of the college’s cutting-edge facilities, demonstrations of the Clinical Skills Center, and an application workshop to help students with their applications to the College. But most of the visiting students agreed that their favorite part of their day at WCMC-Q was the chemistry talk.
School visits to WCMC-Q are an essential part of the medical college’s
ongoing outreach program, which offered more than 20 open houses
and application workshops to grade 12 students during the 2010
fall semester.
“We are delighted to have Fatima and Wadha speak to our potential future students. It is great to see our students reach out to their younger peers and share their experience. Events such as this are among the many ways we extend a helping hand to students in Qatar to assist them with their decision to study medicine at WCMC-Q,” said Noha Saleh, director of student recruitment.
The addition of Wadha and Fatima’s presentation to the school visit was at the suggestion of Sheila Qureshi, Ph.D., senior lecturer of chemistry in the Foundation Program.
The students created the presentation as a classroom assignment, Qureshi said. It was so well done that, when a presenter was needed for upcoming school visits, she recommended it as a fun demonstration where the visitors could interact with their peers.
Class schedules prevent the Foundation students from meeting high school visitors during the school year, but both Wadha and Fatima generously gave up part of their winter break twice–for this presentation and previously for students of the Al Bayan School for Girls.
“I was glad to do it. I thought it would be helpful to give them an idea of what Cornell students are like. I wanted to show them how learning could be fun and that it’s not only about memorizing books,” said Fatima.
