The Randolph College Society of Physics Students (SPS), with the help of the Education Department, held the annual Science Day for 3rd through 6th grade children on March 29. Science Day is open to the community at large. Over 150 children, family members, and teachers came to participate in hands-on science activities put on by three faculty and 40 student volunteers. Participants were broken into groups of 20 and rotated through each 30 minute activity, which were held at various places on campus: tower building with spaghetti and marshmallows, lightning demo show, science Jeopardy, dinosaur scavenger hunt, education activities (disposable diapers and how they work: an exploration into hydrophilic superabsorbant polymers, Newton's laws and roller coaster science, clean water: building a simple water filtration system,) and building on earthquake shake tables. As a finale, students were invited to run on the Human-Sized Hamster Wheel, built by the SPS to bring awareness about alternative energy sources.

 

Student participants were offered, at no cost, a fun day of science, a t-shirt, a snack, and prizes for competitions. Teachers were invited to participate, and were given access to lesson plans for hands-on science lessons. Teachers who participated were offered recertification credits.

Feedback from students and parents was overwhelmingly positive: “Thank you for such a wonderful program! We enjoyed it as usual!!! I guess that Cody cannot attend next year because he will be in the 7th grade but we had loved every minute of each one we have attended. You have certainly sparked his interest!!! He thinks you are great! So do I!”

Science Day could not happen without our amazing volunteers, and our generous sponsors. Kacey Meaker ’08, SPS president, was the amazing student in charge. In addition, thanks goes out to all who helped: B&G, especially Bobby Bennett, Anthony Collins, and Susan Clay; Jean Hazelwood from PER. Thanks especially to all the amazing student volunteers: Kate Allen, Camille Benjamin, Charity Bibb, Winncy Cheung, Laura Black, Avis Dallas, Archana Datta, Kate Descoteaux, Eden Estrada, Allison Farrow, Iva Gerasimenko, Brynne Gringas, Ashley Haugh, Yonas Kahsay, Cat Khoo, Rhiannon Knol, Ludovic Lemaitre, Bobbie LaFleur, Nema Marjana, Rachel Martinez, Kelsey McCune, Felicity Mills,Nadia Moheisan, Lauren Moore, Yanpaing Soe Oo, Sharon Read, Teal Rowe, Emily Schuetz, Danielle Simms, Johanna Strickland, Delgerjargal Sukhbaatar, Meaghan Sweeney, Elizabeth Tanner, Puspa Thapa, Lesley Tylczak, Elizabeth K. Williams, and Marissa Wolff. The faculty organizers were Peggy Schimmoeller, Peter Sheldon, and Tatiana Toteva.

Our generous sponsors are AREVA, American Physical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Information on Science Day can be found at the website, http://physics.randolphcollege.edu/sps/sciday. Next year’s Science Day will be help on April 4, 2009.