Friday, January 30, 2009

Family Science Night at Foothill Elementary

Last night was the family science night at Foothill Elementary School in Goleta. This is the second time I have participated in this event and I have to say that am very impressed with how well these functions are produced. There are several groups of people from the greater Santa Barbara area that come and present an interactive exhibit that represents some field of science, it seems that the most important aspect of the exhibits is their degree of interactivity. There were groups from the Materials Research Lab, Physics and Chemistry Departments from UCSB that presented exhibits ranging from 3D protein structures to making messy goo with the absorbent material used in baby diapers. A local cardiologist even presented an exhibit entitled "Gross Anatomy" and brought actual human organs for the kids to touch and play with. At this event some of the kids participated in there own independent science program in which they developed a catapult. Overall, I have to say that this has been my favorite part of the fellowship experience to date. I love watching the kids faces when the take Magic Sand from the bottom of a bowl of water and pull it thinking it will be wet only to see that it is completely dry. We also learned that Magic Sand can bounce on water when dropped from a short height.

Ryan