“Cool, look at this, wow, this is awesome.”
Those phrases were repeated throughout the day as students at Kohl and Emerald elementary schools in Broomfield played with sound, light, electricity, magnets, waves, clouds and lasers.
Colorado State University’s Little Shop of Physics program, a traveling science museum supported mainly by CSU’s College of Natural Science, recently set up more than 100 interactive science experiments in Kohl’s gym.
“There are so many cool things that I never thought about,” said Kohl fifth-grader Lily Schimschal.
The Fort Collins program visits nearby K-12 schools, and, during breaks, goes farther afield to places like the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and Todos Santos, Mexico.
An annual open house also is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at CSU’s Lory Student Center.
“We truly believe kids learn science by doing hands on exploration,” said outreach coordinator Heather Michalak. “We bring a small selection of really cool stuff.”
Betsy Shehigian, a talented and gifted student advisor who works at both Emerald and Kohl, suggested the program after visiting a Little Shop of Physics booth at another science event.
Emerald students were bused to Kohl for the event, with about 675 first-through-fifth graders attending from both schools. Impact on Education gave grants to both schools for the visit.
“It’s just so fun seeing how the kids are reacting to the experiments,” Shehigian said. “My ultimate goal is for 100 percent of the students to leave here saying they like science.”
Experiments were divided into those best experienced in a lighted room and those that showed up best in a dark room.
Students could swirl liquid that mimics the atmosphere on Jupiter, race cars down different-width tracks, find a hidden hologram, see how lasers act in mist, levitate magnets and use a hair dryer to blow a Ping-Pong ball through hoops.
For the experiments that caught their interest, they also could read a placard that explained the science behind it.
“It’s really cool,” said Emerald fourth-grader Juliana Mahan. “It’s amazing to see all the different things they brought.”
Kohl fifth-grader Jacob Solano especially loved scooping out “clouds” and pouring them back into a bowl in the touch-a-cloud experiment.
“You can breathe it in, and it feels like water,” he said.
The experiments are built mainly by freshmen as the final project in their physics class. Helping run the program are CSU student interns, who assist during school visits, then repair and improve whatever breaks.
“I love working with the kids and making experiments for them,” said intern Fey Schnarr, a CSU freshman physics major. “We just want to get them interested in science and show them it’s not just sitting in a classroom. There are cool bits to it.”
Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa
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