Give Them Their Heads

Soon after the U.S. Air Force opened its missile test center near Melbourne. Fla. (pop. 14,500), Principal Frank Brown of the Melbourne High School found himself facing an unusual problem. The children of the center's scientists and engineers had absorbed so much knowledge at home that the school's regular science program was highly inadequate. Even the addition of an electronics course failed to satisfy them. Then last spring one of Brown's teachers got an idea for a way to take care not only of the knowledgeable newcomers but also of Melbourne children with unusual talent: why not set up a volunteer advanced science class and give the youngsters their heads?

Brown began collecting surplus electronic and laboratory equipment from the missile base. He talked missile contractors into donating scientific journals and magazines, persuaded the Air Research and Development Command to finance a series of summer scholarships for especially gifted students. But for all his planning, Principal Brown never quite anticipated some of the astonishing things the boys and girls would undertake.

Dial for Answers. Norman Kimmey, 17, decided to build an artificial kidney, now exchanges learned letters with a professor of anatomy at Johns Hopkins University. Peggy Owen. 16, is trying to induce cancer in mice by injecting them with carcinogens. With the help of Mary McCarthy, 17, Bill Tippie, 18, is building a binary-notation digital computer which will solve problems fed into it by a telephone dial. Allen Womack, 14, is working on his own Geiger counter that he describes as "an analytical count-rate meter for nuclear disintegration."

Through her study of antigens, Suzanne Brown, 16, is trying to develop in mice an immunity to the irritation of mosquito bites. Other students are studying the tolerance of fresh-water fish for salt, the effect of light on the fighting mood of chameleons, and ways to induce toads to lay their eggs out of season. One boy, having noticed that some dead fish do not pollute the water in tanks that contain a certain type of algae, now thinks he is on the road to a discovery. "I know there is an antibiotic property in the algae," says he. "My next job is to isolate it."

They Can Fix. Brown's budding scientists have proved themselves useful in less exalted ways. Once when some of the school's electric clocks broke down, the local repairman turned down Brown's call for help. "We'd be glad to come out.'' he explained. "But those kids out there can fix them." The students now maintain all the school's equipment, have in stalled an intercom system and a special burglar alarm in the boys' washroom to keep young vandals from breaking the ceiling tiles. But more important than any of their projects is the enthusiasm the program has aroused. The students have requested so many scientific books from the University of Florida library that the university has had to put the school on a quota. One boy is working 25 hours a week after hours to earn enough money to build his own laboratory. Another boy got limited security clearance from the Air Research and Development Command so that he can work during the summer testing rocket fuels at the missile base.

Says Principal Brown proudly: "We don't know how the Russians are doing with their emphasis on compulsory science education. But I'll bet our volunteer students could top anything at their level in the Soviet Union."

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