When a group of chemistry students at Harvey Mudd College conducted lead contamination tests on soil samples recently, 140 elementary students watched avidly via webcam from their classrooms at nearby Vista del Valle Elementary School.

The schoolchildren had as much investment in the project as the college students did: they had helped collect the soil samples from their school playground as part of The Lead Project, a unique research and educational program developed by the HMC Department of Chemistry in collaboration with Vista and the California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.

“We’re looking at the problem of lead poisoning in children,” explains Hal Van Ryswyk, HMC professor of chemistry. “The prevailing wisdom is that this is primarily a problem in housing. But recent research shows that there has to be another culprit.”

One likely source is tetra-ethyl lead, a gasoline additive that infiltrated the soil near highly trafficked roadways before being banned in 1986.

“Whatever hits the soil is there in perpetuity,” Van Ryswyk says. “And given the number of schools and parks that are close to major transportation corridors, that becomes a concern.”

At Vista, which is just blocks from the busy 10 Interstate, the freshmen led lessons on math and science, worked with the schoolchildren to collect soil samples, and helped interpret the testing results.  

The project went beyond an exchange of math lessons and technology, says Ley Yeager, Vista’s principal. “We have a number of children here who would be the first in their families to go to college, so the exposure to college students is great.”  
    
Vista students agree. Janette Muñoz, 10, decided to pursue a career in geology after working with the HMC freshmen. Fifth-grader Nicholas Ibarra has been inspired, too: “I want to use science to make the world a better place,” he says.