Science Day at Rowan an eye-opener for area high school students

GLASSBORO The fish were fighting themselves.

On Friday, 23 Clearview Regional High School students sat distracted in Rowan University assistant professor Matthew Bealor's laboratory in Glassboro as participants in the university's eighth annual Science Day. They were prodding tanks of betta fish on the countertops, some rapping their nets against the glass, others pressing their noses to the sides of the tanks.

After lecturing for a few minutes about the aggressive tendencies of male betta fish - which will rip one another to shreds if more than one is kept in the same tank - the professor told the visiting students they were allowed to lower their floating mirrors into the water.

At once, the battles began.

Fins stiffened as the fish took swipes and bites at their reflections, fruitlessly bounding full speed into the glass. All the while, Bealor's students noted each chomp of the teeth and flare of the gills.

"If you attend Rowan University, you'll get to do something even cooler," Bealor shouted as his visitors clamored to get to lunch. "You'll get to put the fish in the tank with a female."

Science Day, which ran from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the university Science Hall, is designed to give students the type of hands-on experience they cannot typically get in a high school classroom. Students from six high schools in South Jersey - Clearview Regional High School, Millville Senior High School, Deptford Township High School, Kingsway High School, Woodbury High School, and Buena Regional High School - attended the event.

The 22 lessons were organized into three one-hour blocks throughout the day. The 121 students were free to choose whichever lectures piqued their interests, from speeches about hydrogen fuel-cell technology to crash courses on software engineering.

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Science Day at Rowan an eye-opener for area high school students