SCHOOL: Mangum Elementary

GRADE LEVEL: 1st

PROGRAM: Astro Adventures/Funky Forces

INSTRUCTOR: Aaron Henderson

Scientist Aaron’s Experience:

On Friday, I had the pleasure of going to Mangum Elementary School to work on two different programs with the first-graders there. It was my fist time to this school so I was a little nervous, but the worry was for no reason because the kids there were awesome.

The first program we worked on was Astro Adventures. As these junior astronomers were looking at awesome space related experiments, their eyes lit up. They enjoyed making their own constellations using glow paper and ultraviolet lights. They especially enjoyed experimenting with the hydrophobic “space” sand and our big finale: water rockets. Even the teachers were enjoying launching these high into the sky.

The second program we looked at was Funky Forces and the junior scientists now turned into physicists to look at how and why things move. We focused on three categories of movement and looked at experiments involving each. All the junior scientists loved the labs. There were two: a magnet lab and a balancing lab. Going around the room during this free experimentation time is such a joy. Watching the kids testing on their own and understanding these concepts is such a great thing to see. Our big finale for this program was our magnetic slime. It was magnetic due to the iron oxide that we added to our recipe. Each junior scientist was given a piece of the slime as well as a magnet to take home for further experimentation.