On Friday morning, a science classroom on the New College of Florida’s campus was hopping with activity, despite the campus emptying out a month earlier. The classroom was filled with middle school and high school students, fixated on piles of trash sitting in front of them.
The 31 students had collected the bottles, candy wrappers and plastic bags from the New College Bayfront, and their task now was to create something beautiful out of it. New College biology professor Sandra Gilchrist looked on as makeshift shields, fish, benches and swords evolved from what had been piles of garbage.
The 15th year of PUSH/SUCCESS, a two-week science camp, was wrapping up. Gilchrist established the program to teach scientific concepts to students from demographics under-represented in science.