Soap and (Pond) Water Make a Splash at Academic Summer Camp Date: Aug. 8, 2000 Story and photos by: Dawn Fuller Phone: (513) 556-1823 Archive: General News Making soap and designing T-shirts sounds like a lot of fun, but dozens of youngsters discovered it was educational too, as part of UC's University College Summer 2000 Academic Camp. The camp is the latest development in the five-year GEAR UP initiative to get kids on track to college before they even reach high school. Students from Parham School in Evanston and Burton school in Avondale will work on their reading, writing and studying skills and will explore biology at Burnet Woods pond, as the two week program continues through Aug. 11. The soap and T-shirt creations were underway in the chemistry lab led by UC assistant professor Jon Breiner. "Basically, we made soap the same way they did 100 years ago. We took animal fat -- some people chose lard and some chose olive oil. We mixed the animal fat with lye and at some point, added some table salt," said Breiner. "We took lard and water and put it on a burner and then let it set, and it turned into soap," said Jessica Kelly, an eighth grader at Burton. The T-shirt creations demonstrated chromatography. Students used magic markers to make their designs, then used a dropper filled with rubbing alcohol to separate the compounds of the marker and make the ink bloom. Many of the results resembled the "tie-dye" T-shirts of the '70s (and their comeback in the '90s), but Jessica Slaughter stuck with Bearcat red, as she wrote the names of her favorite basketball players on her T-shirt. "I watch the Bearcats all the time. My favorite is Pete Mickeal," said Slaughter, who attended Burton and will start ninth grade this fall. She is already thinking of a college major in a field to treat sports-related injuries. GEAR UP, an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, is a $120 million initiative launched one year ago by the U.S. Department of Education to put a higher education within the reach of children who may not have considered college an option. The $1.8 million Cincinnati GEAR UP collaboration includes more than 10 local and regional partners including UC, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Wilberforce University and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. Breiner says so far, the academic camp has been a success. "I'm eating lunch with them every day and talking with them about what they got out of the labs. I'm talking with them about college and they're talking about going to college, which to me is a major part of this program." The camp ends with a graduation ceremony 1:15-2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, in Room 2109, French Hall. Parents of the students are invited to attend the graduation ceremony.