PROGRAM HELPS RETIREES UNLEASH MAGIC OF SCIENCE FOR SCHOOL KIDS.

Byline: Toni Merlinos-Mata The Lodi News-Sentinel

Eight-year-old Nicholas Oliveira slipped the rectangular slide underneath the microscope lens and lowered his eye to the viewer.

``Oooh, wow, I've got lots of critters here,'' the excited New Hope School second-grader said.

The slide held a few drops of murky water and the secret life that can be found within it. This sample came from a drain pipe in Bib Biffel's front yard.

``The purpose of the lesson is to teach how to use a microscope,'' said Biffel, a retired Caltrans engineer, as he watched the budding scientists learn through trial and error about the scientific instruments.

It's a lesson the kids wouldn't have gotten if it weren't for people like Biffel, retired professionals whose scientific backgrounds are the foundation for an unusual partnership with the county's rural schools.

Called TOPS (Teaching Opportunities for Partners in Science), it uses men and women like Biffel who volunteer their time to bring the excitement, mystery and enthusiasm for science into the classroom, beyond what the regular classroom teacher does. The program is funded by the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

During his most recent visit to New Hope School, the 65-year-old Biffel showed students how to manipulate a simple, black $80 microscope to unlock the fascinating world of microscopic organisms.

``When your eye moves, (the image) moves,'' Nicholas said, voicing aloud his discovery as he inspected a slide labeled ``silverberry flowers.''

Fern and spores, honeybees' hind wings and sea urchin eggs (a surprising magenta) were among the detailed images that appeared as student after student gazed into the microscopes. In some dirty water (left over from the recent floods, Biffel noted), the children discovered various debris and an occasional slow-moving nematode worm.

``Coooool,'' exclaimed Jennifer Rodriguez, 7, as she focused in on the fine, spindly sprays of the bright purple-and-blue silverberry flowers.

Biffel's lessons, which are presented to the second-grade classroom about once every eight weeks, are supplementing the science curriculum teacher Lisa Ignoffo is covering.

``It's a very good program. (Students) are obtaining a love of science in a different aspect. It's peaking their curiosity,'' she said. ``And to have a visitor come and teach is more exciting.''

TOPS volunteer teachers reach 17 rural schools. Thirty retired scientists, engineers and physicians are participating.

Biffel's responsibility is at New Hope, where he visits one of the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade classes each week. He also runs the school's science clubs.

One week's club activity was examining owl pellets, a solid material regurgitated by owls that includes the undigested bones and feathers of its prey. The students dissected the sterilized pellets and matched the bones to skeletal outlines of such animals as mice.

Fostering a love for science is a critically important job, said Biffel, who spent 37 years with the California Department of Transportation before retiring three years ago.

``I've been active in several engineering societies and we knew we were having trouble getting people to get involved in the sciences,'' he said.

TOPS is the way he's making a contribution toward ``keeping our culture going,'' he said.