Chapter 1 88 sees Martyrs Park in South Memphis Tennessee would have had many plants for Danielle to comb through on her search for four leaf clovers FINDING FOUR LEAF CLOVERS L anielle Lee remembers her childhood summers well She spent most of her time in the parks of South Memphis Tennessee To keep her busy Danielle's mother sent her on scavenger hunts One hunt was for a four leaf clover That's
r it took Danielle spent the rest of the summer crawling around searching for four leaf clovers Danielle soon knew what clues would lead her to places clover might be growing First she looked across the lawn She looked for bees buzzing near the ground Those bees led her to patches of clover The bees pollinated the white sweet smelling flowers Then her search began in earnest She sorted through each clover by hand Gently she bent the stems to count the leaves There are about 240 different species of clover plants The leaves grow in clusters of three to six
This took a long time but was worth it Four leaf clovers are rare only one in every ten thousand covers has four leaves Finding one took Daniele breath away when she became a scientist this same excitement would surface each time she's made an important discovery Since four leaf clovers are rare some people think they are lucky P6
TECH TALK I would like to see more kids who have this natural curiosity who come from the hood like me or the barrios or the trailer parks We happen to be poor That doesn t mean there isn't promise there or genius or excitement or curiosity I care about amplifying the voices of people who have been overlooked particularly when it comes to science Danielle Lee EARLY YEARS Danielle Lee was born in South Memphis in the early 1970s She lived in a small three bedroom apartment with four generations of family She lived with her parents cousins grandmother and other family members Space was tight So Daniele spent a lot of time outside She would sit for hours watching squirrels gather twigs or birds splashing in puddles She was always able to slow down and notice things others often overlooked Danielle also asked her parents and teachers questions She always wanted to learn more A 8 7
