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SCIENCE GOES SILLY
Photo
Garrett Teutsch, 2, of Girard rides in a soap-box derby car during the second annual Silly Science Sunday at the OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology in Youngstown. The event featured a variety of science-related activities.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
For 8-year-old Isabella Loccisano, attending a yearly science show amounted to a lot more than a penny for her thoughts — though a penny was handy for her drops.
“I got 21 drops of water on the penny,” an excited Isabella said after conducting an experiment showing how water molecules from an eye dropper adhere to one another under certain circumstances.
Isabella’s neighbor and friend, 9-year-old Dana Haus, successfully got nine drops on the penny before the water overflowed the coin’s boundaries. In addition, the two students of West Boulevard Elementary School in Boardman better understood a scientific principle that was nothing to sneeze at.
“I learned that when you put pepper inside water and soap, the pepper separates,” Dana observed.
The two experiments were a smattering of offerings available during Sunday’s second annual Silly Science Sunday gathering at OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology, 11 W. Federal St.
Also, one block of West Federal was closed to traffic for the outdoor portion of the event, which offered children and adults numerous hands-on, interactive exhibits, demonstrations and activities to deepen their appreciation for and critical-thinking skills related to educational programs rooted in science, technology and mathematics.
The water and pepper experiments as well as a demonstration challenging participants to figure out which fur piece belonged to which animal were favorites of Isabella’s sister, Michaela, 6, as well as 6-year-old friend Lanie Vennetti, both of whom also attend West Boulevard Elementary.
“The molecules stick together. Adding soap breaks the bond and it releases the molecules, and that’s why it pushes the pepper aside,” explained John Beitzel, a naturalist with Mill Creek MetroParks’ Ford Nature Center who led both scientific adventures.
Assisting Beitzel was Sasha Monroe, a Youngstown State University information-technology major.
The four girls came with Michaela’s and Isabella’s parents, Mike and Kim Loccisano.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve been [to OH WOW!] and we’re excited to see the new stuff,” Kim said.
Many attendees seemed intrigued by a lecture and demonstration on water that Dr. Ray Beiersdorfer offered.
Beiersdorfer, a YSU professor of geology and environmental sciences, noted that 97 percent of the world’s water is saltwater and explained that most fresh water is glacial ice. If a five-gallon bucket represented the world’s water, the amount of available fresh water is equivalent to about one drop, he pointed out.
Beiersdorfer also flipped a glass of water, without spilling any, onto a postcard to illustrate how air pressure can counteract the ability of the water to push downward.
Many attendees were drawn to a tent run by YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that featured a 1930s-style electric bridge table with a rotating arm that shuffles and deals cards; igneous-, sedimentary- and metamorphic-rock displays; a variety of fossils and geodes; and a 5-foot pipe-shaped cannon that shoots Ping-Pong balls at soda cans.
Matt Coppage, a YSU civil- engineering major, used a pen at one end of the pipe to release enormous pressure, which produced a gunshot-like sound and sent the ball through with enough speed and force to destroy the small ball and the can.
“We fire it up and recycle the cans,” Coppage said with laughter.
Other attractions were remote-controlled robots, including one that shot basketballs at a hoop, and a new solar-bug dome designed by Angelo LaMarca Jr., the center’s facilities manager.
The 7-foot dome allows participants to use flashlights to move faux bugs along tracks, and is equipped with solar panels to show the importance of solar energy, LaMarca noted.
Others gathered around a “toastermobile” owned by the Schwebel Baking Co. that, with the push of a button, raises and lowers from a hydraulic lift two large pieces of wood and fiberglass shaped like pieces of toast.
“It’s just a fun thing,” said Lee S. Schwebel, director of marketing for the 106-year-old local bread company his great-grandparents founded. “Who’s ever seen a toaster on wheels and toast that goes up and down?”
Schwebel added: “We’re really committed to the Mahoning Valley, that’s where our heart is. We’re about families.”