Photo by George Garbeck/Paterson Public Schools
PATERSON - Wearing protective goggles and white laboratory coats, 20 kindergarten students at School 27 conducted what probably were the first scientific experiments of their academic careers on Monday morning.
The youngsters used the insides of plastic gloves as makeshift test tubes as they mixed an acidic liquid (vinegar) with a powdery chemical compound (baking soda). Within moments, the resulting chemical reaction produced a gas that inflated the gloves.
Photo by George Garbeck/Paterson Public Schools
As the gloves grew into balloon-like objects, the children reacted with animated delight. They laughed and squealed. They seemed amazed. 'Science rocks,' they chanted at the prompting of their instructor, 'Galaxy Gracene' Siriano of the Science Explorers, a Pennsylvannia-based education company.
Monday was the first day of a 10-week special science program at School 27, an initiative paid for through an $89,000 grant from the AMETEK Foundation, an electronics company, in conjunction with two organizations dedicated to bringing quality science instruction to schools, The SPARKS Foundation and Science Explorers.
Under the program, students in kindergarten through 3rd grades will participate in weekly hands-on experiments in different fields of science. School 27 was just one of three schools in the country picked for the AMETEK grants program this year, according to 'Jupiter Jen' Moorehead of the Science Explorers. The other schools - in Mahwah (NJ) and Tulsa (OK) - will get five-week programs, she said.
After an auditorium assembly conducted by 'Solar Sarah' Troy of Science Explorers, the first classes began. Each group of School 27 students will go through on Science Explorers session per week.
The youngsters all receive science-oriented, alliterative nicknames - like Astronaut Alexa, Ice Age Isabella and Neptune Nelson - as part of the program.
During Monday's kindergarten session, Galaxy Gracene poured make-believe 'science dust' over the students and declared they had all become scientists.
After the experiment with the baking soda and vinegar, the Science Explorers provided each of the youngsters with two small containers - one containing a yellowish liquid and the other some murkey brown liquid.
Galaxy Gracene asked the youngsters for their hypotheses (a work she stressed again and again in an effort to add it to their vocabularies) on what would happen when the substances were mixed together. Cactus Christian said he thought it would blow up. Crystal Cailey said it would turn blue.
Magma Melanie was shocked by the results. 'It's growing,' she screamed id as the two liquids combined to form an expanding foam-like solid in a bright shade of green.
Entities 0 Name: Science Explorers Count: 2 1 Name: Mahwah Count: 1 2 Name: School Count: 1 3 Name: George Garbeck\/Paterson Public Schools PATERSON Count: 1 4 Name: Tulsa Count: 1 5 Name: AMETEK Count: 1 6 Name: AMETEK Foundation Count: 1 7 Name: Moorehead Count: 1 8 Name: Gracene Count: 1 9 Name: George Garbeck\/Paterson Count: 1 10 Name: Troy of Science Explorers Count: 1 11 Name: Isabella Count: 1 12 Name: Galaxy Gracene Count: 1 13 Name: Neptune Nelson Count: 1 14 Name: Siriano Count: 1 15 Name: Crystal Cailey Count: 1 16 Name: Cactus Christian Count: 1 17 Name: Astronaut Alexa Count: 1 18 Name: Magma Melanie Count: 1 19 Name: SPARKS Foundation and Science Explorers Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1DtA42C Title: Inspiring the scientists of tomorrow Description: Think back to a science class in your teenage years. Were you paying attention to that explanation of a chemical reaction on the blackboard? Or intrigued by how cells were dividing under a microscope?
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