SCHOOL: Armstrong Elementary

GRADE LEVEL: 3rd

PROGRAM: Motion Commotion

INSTRUCTOR: Gabi Goszczynska

Scientist Gabi’s Experience:

Early Monday morning at Armstrong Elementary, third graders were beating gravity. The kids were catching stacks of checkers before the chips hit the ground and shooting off water rockets simply using film canisters, H20 and Alka-Seltzer tablets. The force was definitely with the Armstrong Allstars. I had a wonderful day at Armstrong Elementary in Eastover, seeing Newton’s Laws of Motion in action and testing out friction shoes.

I instantly felt welcomed at Armstrong Elementary with every face smiling on that chilly day. As I entered the school, I noticed their windows decorated with words proclaiming the benefits of learning. I could tell that the love of learning was infectious throughout the school because of all of the kids waiting eagerly for me to begin. As we got going, their hands shot up with hypotheses, guessing what would happen to balloons that they helped me release into the air. They were definitely excited to learn! As we dove into the labs, I could barely turn my head before another junior scientist was showing me how they hit the bulls eye with their pocket rocket or how they were able to move the marble through a friction tube. I even had a record setting student, catching nine gravity chips at one time! The best moment came when I overheard one kid exclaiming “this is better than recess!” Well, if it’s better than recess, it must be pretty great.

As always in Motion Commotion, the highlight was launching the mini water rockets. Although I framed this as a competition between two teams, in the end, all of the kids decided that the true prize was how much fun it was to see those rockets blast off! One child on the winning team even said, “the real prize is what we learn, right!?” That brought a big smile to my face. I can full-heartedly say that I came home a happy scientist knowing that Armstrong Elementary was full of budding young scientists who showed me the meaning of teamwork, excitement and the joy of learning!