Every Saturday in March from 8:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., the science department hosts Saturday Science. Students from elementary schools have the opportunity to participate in activities, crafts and hands-on experiments to help them learn and understand basic science.
Chemistry teacher Jason Jackson is in charge of Saturday Science and has help from science teachers Jason Strom, Michele Berry, Weston Heeren and Kassidy Grumbles.
“I think in elementary school, there is a lot of focus on math and reading and not so much on science,” Berry said, “It is important that kids at a young age are introduced to science and recognize that it is fun. Then once they get to high school they have more positive memories about school and science.”
On March 2 and March 9, students learned about stars and constellations, qualitative analysis, density and fizzy reactions.
For the constellations activity, the kids made their own constellations and planispheres.
Kids in the qualitative analysis group learned about chemical reactions of household substances, like cleaning supplies.
Students in the density group built graduated cylinders to show the density of different materials.
The fizzy reactions group made their own bath bombs.
In the past two weeks of Saturday Science, attendees went to different stations. They could test the bath bombs they made in previous weeks, learn about buoyancy and test homemade boats, learn about magnetism and electricity while playing with circuit boards and learn about sundials and the solar eclipse.
NC students can also volunteer to help out.
Volunteering at Saturday Science counts as service hours, so anyone in need of service hours can get five hours each time they help. Students in National Honor Society are encouraged to volunteer as a way to get their required service hours in.