From left: The author with pal Leo O’Hare and husband Jim Bunce in a rowing shell, preparing for a sculling session on South River with the Annapolis Rowing Club in Annapolis, MD. Photo courtesy of the author

Teaching has been my life for more than 34 years. I’ve taught science in junior high, high school, and undergraduate chemistry courses for nonscience majors, nursing students, chemistry majors, and plebes at the U.S. Naval Academy.

After I finally retired, I wondered what I would do with all the experience and joy I’ve always gotten from helping students understand the logic and explanatory benefits of chemistry.

Finding the Next Current

Keeping my eyes open for opportunities in retirement ensured that I didn’t have to search for long! Little did I know that a decades-long hobby would lead to my next chapter.

My husband Jim and I have been rowers who have practiced both sweep and sculling for the past 26 years. Jim is a physiological ecologist, a scientist studying global warming and its effects on plant photosynthesis. We often row and kayak with one of our best friends, Leo O’Hare, who is—you guessed it—also a scientist! As an aerospace engineer, Leo’s career included work on missile programs for the U.S. military.

While it’s not easy to chat much in a rowing shell (the “boat”), the three of us also enjoy kayaking, which luckily gives us plenty of time to “nerd out.” When a keen observer in our trio suddenly questions why the water flows a certain way or what types of plants we’re seeing or why our oars or kayaks are made from certain materials, the other two just grin—because we know a lively conversation is about to ensue, with each of us bringing our unique scientific expertise to the discussion.

We three were on a kayaking trip about seven years ago to explore a local bay at Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Newfoundland, Canada. Due to the shifting tides and winds in the area that day, we needed local guides to accompany us. The two young men who led our kayak trip that day were rising seniors at the local high school, and much to our joy, they both enthusiastically declared their favorite subject was science! Chemistry for the one guide and physics for the other.

After some conversation, they both lamented that not much experimental or hands-on work was taking place in either their chemistry or physics class. With so few students in their rural school, the physics course was taught virtually, and the chemistry course lacked the extra time needed for experiments.

Our trio of scientists was concerned to hear this, and so we promised to come back to Newfoundland to teach them lab. While our guides didn’t quite seem to believe us, they did give me their principal’s name and contact info.

Making Waves at a Small School

As promised, I emailed their principal a few weeks later with the subject line, “3 retired scientists would like to help!” We’ll never know why the principal of Gros Morne Academy opened my email, but it was the start of a delightful, ongoing relationship with the school’s 140 students, from kindergarten through grade 12, in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland.

Our initial two-week visit to the academy happened in February 2023. To prepare, Leo, Jim, and I had developed a list of experiments spanning grades K-12.

We had designed some of the experiments ourselves and were thrilled to also receive generous donations of experiments and materials from the American Chemical Society Outreach Office, the U.S. Naval Academy STEM Outreach Office, the AACT website, and the former University of Wisconsin Institute for Chemical Education. Many kind people from these organizations helped us procure appropriate materials for all 140 students!

After arriving at the school, we asked the Gros Morne teachers to select which experiments they thought were most appropriate for their classes. Our trio met with each class two to three times over the two-week period and had an incredible time sharing our love of science with everyone there.

Moments That Made the Grade

Together, Jim, Leo, and I have so many stories to share about the Gros Morne Academy students, teachers, and administrators. Below are just a few of our favorites.

Jim:

From our time at Gros Morne Academy, my favorite two moments to date have been activities we did with the chemistry and biology students.

In the chemistry class, while doing well-plate tests for ions in water, the students were amazed by the differences in the calcium content of samples they had collected from different local sources—like the wells, springs and lakes in their area, including the national park. The diversity of findings within the local Gros Morne geology prompted many different questions and conversations, and it was clear that students were really connecting with the activity!

When teaching a biology lab, it was great being able to relate the region’s local limestone to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and show students discrete examples of how the changing CO₂ levels in air affect photosynthesis and transpiration rates in plants, using a borrowed portable instrument.

Helping them learn that plant leaves give off water while taking up CO₂ was interesting because this fact seems contrary to the common, simplest chemical equation of photosynthesis that students learn in biology. The chemical equation is correct, but plants lose a lot of water in the process of letting carbon dioxide diffuse into their leaves from the air. With the data from our instrument, we could acknowledge and explain that phenomenon as students observed it, which made the lesson very rewarding.

Leo:

Our objective was for students to understand that a major goal of physicists and engineers is to understand and interpret what we observe and experience in the world around us. To help accomplish this, we developed experiments focusing on the motion of objects in gravity and in water as well as solid body friction and fluid friction. Students worked through several stations performing experiments, making necessary measurements, and recording results.

Once all the teams completed their rounds, they plotted the data on large chart paper to create graphs and then drew trend lines through the data. Students noticed that the shapes of these curves were either straight lines or parabolas.

We guided them toward writing mathematical equations to represent the curves and told them, “Now we have tools—equations—that can be used to predict the behavior of future designs.” Students now had visual ways to recognize patterns and equations to model that:

• The speed of a falling object increases linearly with time, but the distance that object travels increases quadratically with time.
• Solid body friction causes a linear relationship between the weight of the object and the force to pull it.
• Fluid friction has a quadratic relationship between the speed of a boat through the water and the force required to pull it.

It was satisfying to see students recognizing that the equations they learned in their math classes have practical applications in the real world and are relied upon in science and engineering as important tools for interpretation of data.

Diane

One of our most talked about experiments came from an ACS ChemMatters article, “What’s in marshmallows?” and used Peeps marshmallow candy. Showing a sugar molecule model made from a child’s building toy, we explained that the Peep’s sugar structure allowed space to trap air inside.

Each student received their own Peep and a toothpick to use as a “spear.” To perform “Peep jousting,” as described in the article, two students’ Peeps were set up facing each other on a paper plate and then placed in a microwave.

We never tired of students’ squeals of delight as they watched the Peeps grow bigger and bigger as the air inside the sugar structure heated—before the marshmallow suddenly collapsed when the air pressure was high enough to break out of the structure and escape.

After all the excitement, students were allowed to eat their collapsed Peeps after removing the toothpicks. To our surprise and confusion, no one wanted to eat their Peep. Then we learned that, because the students had named their Peeps, they couldn’t eat their newfound friends!

Another memorable and heartwarming moment came when a senior student arrived for our last day with the class and presented us with a cake! After thanking her, I asked why she had made this wonderful treat for us. She answered, “How could I not bake you a cake when you have given us so much education?”

Clearly our efforts to spread our love of science had been worth it!

A Ripple Effect

One of the ways we measured our success was by the number of teachers who would show up at the science room each morning to see what experiments we had ready for the day. We enjoyed interacting with the teachers and, as a result, set up an impromptu teacher’s workshop. We also hosted a family science night for students and parents.

We left copies of all the experiments we did for each grade, along with the remaining materials, so that teachers could practice or continue to do the experiments with other students after we left.

The three of us had so much fun with this endeavor that we decided to return to the school every two years for another two-week session. We are currently planning our third trip to Newfoundland in February 2027. Next time, we’ll be teaching at two schools about 30 miles apart. We’ll again work with students from kindergarten through grade 12 at each school, and we’re refining our collection of experiments for every grade level.

This experience sharing our passions for chemistry, biology, and engineering has touched each of our lives and has challenged us to redefine our own knowledge in terms that students at all levels can understand. We also learned that retirement opens doors to keep putting our scientific knowledge to work in the service of others. You just need to look for the opportunities!