Council Rock Holds Super Science Night

Fourth grade students from across Council Rock School District participated in the fourth annual Super Science Family Night this past Thursday at Council Rock High School South.  Students attended with their parents and participated in a variety of hands-on science demonstrations. 

"The goal of the night is to generate interest in science and showcase hands-on science," said event organizer Renee Devlin, science coordinator at South.

Hands-on science was exactly what the students and parents got.  Students were given a "passport of learning", which included a map of the science wing, and a list of the science topics available for exploration. 

Stations included a Planetarium, Fun with Physics, Slime City, Liquid Nitrogen, Kitchen Chemistry, Mystery Powders, Oil Spill Clean-Up, and Magic Sand. 

Fourth grade Newtown Elementary student Camryn Polinski said her favorite room was the liquid nitrogen room. 

In this classroom, Holland Middle School earth science teacher Dave Curry provided a lively demonstration of the qualities of liquid nitrogen.  As evidenced by many oohs and aahs from the youngsters and adults in the classroom, Mr. Curry's highly entertaining demonstration held the entire audience captive. 

To the delight of many, some of his tricks included freezing a banana and a racquet ball with liquid nitrogen, then smashing them to pieces.  Polinski said she thought the best part of the show was when Mr. Curry froze marshmallows with liquid nitrogen, and had the students form a line to gobble up the frozen treats. 

Fourth grade Goodnoe Elementary student Jessie Buten said she liked the animal room.  The animal room was a lab equipped with an alligator named Choppers, a dragon, birds, baby hamsters, and a variety of fish.   Jessie said a close second was the oil spill experiment room, where students were charged with the task of determining which detergent would be best to use when cleaning animals impacted from environmental oil spills. 

The experiment had students dump feathers into water filled with oil, then clean them using two different kinds of cleansing agents.  According to a random poll of attendees, Dawn detergent consistently beat out its competition and made the feathers much cleaner.  Jessie said the experiment made her want to help aquatic animals affected by oil spills. 

Science National Honor Society students and teachers from Council Rock North and South provided support and assistance to all participants at each station. 

Devlin said approximately 350 families participated in last week's Super Science Family Night, making it the most successful year yet for the program since its inception in 2008.