McLean High School student Shivani Gupta started off an afternoon session of Wonders of Science at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop in Alexandria on Saturday, Feb. 1, with examples of bones and fossils that she collected as an 18th century natural scientist.
Shivani is one of dozens of students participating in Dean Howarth’s Project Enlightenment at McLean High School. The project engages each student in researching the lives of individuals or 18th century professions engaged in the creation of useful knowledge. Saturday’s session introduced visitors to natural science, botany, physics and geology. Visitors were introduced to machines that produce electrical fluid, a camera obscura and a variety of fossils, bones and other artifacts that would have been collected and studied by 18th century scientists and thinkers.