Summer Science

Presque Isle, along with the rest of Michigan, has been beastly hot — 94 degrees at 5:00 yesterday afternoon.  It was so oppressive that I finally gave up unpacking books and took a dip in Lake Esau.  The water is usually quite chilly, but yesterday it was warmer than on any other day this summer.  Nevertheless, the lake was exactly what the occasion required.  After that I air-dried in the breeze on my porch.  That was as delightful as the swim!

This week Karen Pokorski and husband Pat (the township supervisor) are sponsoring a science fair in the gym at the Presque Isle Harbor Association clubhouse.  Karen specializes in early education and loves introducing children to science and nature.  She and Pat decided to offer this hands-on science expo for the benefit of children who live at Presque Isle or are visiting relatives on summer vacation.

Science in the backwoods!

Today's program featured a half-dozen "stations" through which the children could rotate.  About 15 children participated, with adult volunteers serving as facilitators, including my neighbors Sharon and Sharon!

This "sink-or-float?" station illustrated displacement of water.
Children built a "ship" of aluminum foil, and then loaded it
with pennies to determine maximum displacement.

Keeping the "ship" afloat involved not just the number of
pennies, but their placement in the "cargo hold."

A second "sink-or-float?" station helped the children 
understand surface tension.  Pat (center) and Sharon (right)
showed the children that a paperclip can float on water, 
so long as the molecular cohesion of the surface is maintained.

The "Glacier Station" caught my eye, probably because from 6:30-8:30 this morning I was outside raking rocks at my house.  A tray of frozen rocks and soil helped the children see how, as it finally melted, the last glacier dropped its load of rocks on what would eventually become Presque Isle.  It's this little fact of geologic life which explains why I now live on a rock pile!

A pan of rocks illustrates how glacial till is deposited.
Karen (center) answers the children's questions.

These rocks, gathered in the neighborhood, may well
have been carried here from northern Canada.

The wrap-up for the day's science fair was to be a mini-Cape Canaveral project, launching rockets powered with baking soda and vinegar.  Pat thought they might go as high as 50 feet in the air — and scare the daylights out of some sea gulls!  But even if the rockets only go half that high, children attending the fair have been given practical and "real time" insight into science.  As one young girl said, "I've studied this in school, but now I can see how it works with my own eyes."  You never know when this kind of summer fun will end up launching a career in science. •••