SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD — Jesse Evans attended the Saturday Science program at Wittenberg University to learn about the human eye. He left with a different kind of knowledge.

"I didn't know science could be so cool," the 13-year-old Northwestern Middle School student said. "Science is my least favorite subject, but now I don't know. I'll probably come to more of these (programs)."

Evans was among 30 middle-through-high-school students who attended "How We See: From Eye to Brain," presented Saturday, Feb. 21, in Wittenberg's Bailey Auditorium. Wittenberg assistant professor of psychology Michael Anes led the students on an exploration of the eye and how the brain interprets the messages it receives from the eye.

Katie Conrad, 16, a home-schooled sophomore from New Carlisle, had attended last month's program on symmetry and came back Saturday to experience the kind of science she can't get at the high-school level.

Unlike Evans, Conrad and her friend, Alicia Schuber, 15, of Enon, both like science.

"Now I like it all the better," Conrad said.

The students' reaction to the free program was what organizers had hoped for, Anes said.

"Science literacy is a big deal," he said as he walked with the students from a lab in Hollenbeck Hall to the auditorium. "The U.S. is behind other countries in the (sciences). Universities and colleges are committed to close that gap."

Associate professor of chemistry Ray Dudek agreed. "If they find this interesting enough that it encourages them to take more science when they go back to their high school, then it's all worth it," said Dudek, who will teach the March 21 Saturday Science program on "The science of photography, from old black and white film to the digital age."

Students participated in a research project on how the right and left sides of the brain interpret images and if being left- or right-handed affects those messages. Anes told the students he will be presenting the results of the study at a vision conference in Florida in May.

Evans, who until Saturday hadn't cared much for science, suddenly became very interested.

"Is there any way we can get the results of that study?" he asked.

Anes nodded his head and smiled.