Plains mixes education, fun for holiday learning

Even with Christmas vacation looming and the students' attention span fading fast last week, the teachers at Plains Elementary School were able to get the subject of science across and make it fun with the school's very first "Science Day." And they got a little help from a high school physics class.

The 300 feet of elementary school halls were jam-packed with a vast variety of science material, intermixed with a touch of Christmas. The kids put their artistic talents to work for a portion of the hallway holiday decorations, but much of the hallways were decorated by the nearly dozen teachers and aides, who came in after hours on the previous Friday and the weekend to surprise the students on Monday with the science display.

It was a "Mad Scientist" theme, said Dana Diehl, who teaches fourth grade and helped with the decorations. "It was like a scientific experiment gone bad," said Diehl, referring to the artwork of green slime drooping down the walls. Some of the science lessons included a holiday motif, like the "Chemistree" built and decorated with the names of chemicals and an atom at the top in lieu of a star, and a second tree decorated with molecules and an atom star. There were also several science puns with the Christmas twist, such as "Single Cells, single cells, single all the way," and "A Partridge and a Petri." Randy Garrison, owner of the Printery, donated fun "top secret scientist" identification cards for the children, said Diehl.

The school had a "Polar Express" theme day two years ago, but this one had a more educational twist. The idea for Science Day came from Jill Rice, a Title 1 teacher and one of the event coordinators. It was a mix of education and fun, said Diehl, a teacher at Plains for 21 years. "It definitely creates interest in the subject of science and helps them to engage in it," Diehl explained. She said each teacher gave a science lesson to each of the classes from first to fourth grade, modifying the material for each age group. Diehl taught on the subject of electrical circuits and energy. "It's tough to keep them focused on the subject this close to the holiday, so this helps," she added.

The elementary students were also treated to a 90-minute science show from Carl Benson's physics class. Benson and a dozen senior physics students put together three demonstrations for the 225 students in the new gymnasium, starting with a laser light show with Christmas themes. The class also devised a "Ping Pong Cannon," which was made up of a nine-foot PVC pipe and thin tissue secured at each end. A ping pong ball was placed inside. The air was pumped out of the pipe, which created a vacuum. A hole punctured in one end of the pipe forced air in, pushing whatever was in the pipe out the other end. Benson first used a ping pong ball. Benson and Chisholm held a piece of Styrofoam in front of the cannon to show its force. Benson said the ping pong ball was traveling at around 600 miles per hour. "When we were holding the Styrofoam, It made my ears ring pretty good," said Benson. The ping pong ball went through the Styrofoam and across the gym. The grand finale was shooting a bag of colorful cotton pom pom balls out the cannon. "We wanted to use confetti, but they said it would be too messy," said Benson.

The students moved outside for the third demo, custom made hot air balloons. The balloons were each made from 40 pieces of thin tissue paper that were glued together with a metal rim at the bottom, where notes from several elementary students were attached. It took the students four days to glue the tissue strips together, but portions had to be taped at launch time. During the testing of one of the balloons for leaks, a card caught fire, but was quickly extinguished.

During the actual flight time, the first balloon went up only about 10 feet before it got caught in a tree. The second one went up about 50 feet and went over nearby houses some 150 yards away. They sent the first balloon up again, but it again got caught in another tree before falling to the ground.

Benson said he thought the kids enjoyed the demonstrations, especially the ping pong cannon. "I thought it went really well," said Benson. "If the kids enjoy it, even if things like the balloons not traveling far, it still is successful." Benson, who retires at the end of the school year after 38 years, said he had fun but the important part was sharing science with the kids. "The biggest lesson is to enjoy learning and have some fun," said Benson.

"I think it was a great way for a veteran teacher to have a little bit of fun and use his advanced students to demonstrate his passion to future generations of scientists," said Superintendent Thom Chisholm. "He always has more fun. Biggest kid ever," Chisholm added.