Students learn the magic of science

Students at Clyde Campbell Elementary saw eggs squeezed into glass jars, foam shooting out of beakers and marshmallows expand in science experiments on Thursday.

The honors physics and honors biology classes at St. Stephens High School came to Clyde Campbell to show the students how much fun science can be.

St. Stephens science teacher Fred Whalen said he wanted his students to have fun lesson plans for the elementary school because it would help reinforce what they knew.

"I will know they know the material if they can teach it to someone else," Whalen said. "I thought it would be good for them to teach it to the younger students."

The physics class split into groups with three students each, and taught the third-graders science under the guise of magic. Students saw a makeshift lava lamp, using water, food coloring and cooking oil inside a soda bottle. The high school students activated the bubbles by putting an Alka-Seltzer tablet inside, and lit it underneath with a small flashlight.

"The pressure is building inside, and the bubbles are more dense, so they fall back down," said senior Josh Brophy.

The "lava lamp" lasts as long as there is oxygen in the bottle, Whalen said.

Brophy said this was not the first experiment his group wanted to do. It was a fallback, when the group saw that the shelf life of the chemicals his group needed to use had expired.

Taylor Brown, who was also in Brophy's group, said Whalen let the students select whatever project they wanted to do.

"Mr. Whalen set up our coming to school, but we decided what to do and what to wear," Brown said.

They were dressed in Hawaiian outfits to go with the red of their lava lamp. Other groups were dressed in magicians' capes or tie-dyed T-shirts.

Another group demonstrated how items, such as a balloon and a person made out of jumbo marshmallows, will expand in an area with no oxygen, when oxygen is added to the enclosed area.

Tara McIver, a junior who conducted the experiment with two others, said her group learned of it online.

Matthew Fallaw, 8, said his favorite experiment was the static conductor, a large metal conductor that would send off an electric shock to anyone who touched it.

Matthew said he was only mildly interested in science before the students from St. Stephens came. Now, he's very interested.

"It looks cool," Matthew said.

Nine-year-old Allyson Winkler said she was already interested in science, but that now she might go into a career in science.

Brophy, who plans on becoming an engineer, said that is the effect he hoped the experiments would have on the students.

"If I'd seen people come to school when I was their age, it would make me want to go home and do the experiment myself," Brophy said.

The honors biology students talked to the second-graders about ecology and the food web, using the Disney movie, "The Lion King," to help relate it to the students.

"The grass gets its food from the soil and sun," said sophomore Aaron Chang. "The moose eats the grass. The lion eats the moose. And that's a food chain."

The students also looked at an owl pellet, to a loud chorus of "ewws" and "wows" from the second-graders.

Sophomore Oliver Dresden patiently poked through the pellet with the students, pulling out bits of fur and bones the owl regurgitated, to see if they could identify what animal the owl had eaten. They compared it to a chart Dresden had, with images of bones from several small rodents.

"It's got to be a rat," said Maggie Stiles, 8, after looking at several bones.

She was right.

Sophomore Daniel Anauo said he was glad he had the opportunity to teach the second-graders.

"Some of it was a little advanced, but I thought it went well," he said.

Eight-year-old Dorian Robinson said he was glad the high-schoolers came to his class.

"I liked learning about the food web and having them spending time with us," he said. "I learned that animals eat the grass and other animals eat those animals. This was the best day of my life."