Science is Fun: "Blow it Up! Blow it Up!"

For the seventh year, Advanced Placement students are taking to the elementary schools to prove that science can be fun. Yesterday, AP biology, physics and environmental science students rolled up to school and filed off their bus on a mission. Straight to the cafeteria, more than 30 students got to work setting up their science experiments and within minutes, Sliney fourth graders were gathered at the door, eager to get in an get their hands dirty.

BHS AP physics teacher Helen Elperina and Sliney fourth grade teacher Ginger Dendas have been working together through the years to make this science day possible. Elperina said one of the main goals is bridging the schools and giving older students a chance to see what teaching is about while also offering younger students the opportunity to learn about science and how it “can be fun.”

BHS AP biology teacher Jocelyn Vennero was onsite overseeing her students and said, as students raced around the café from station to station, “This is a very popular program and they love it; our kids and theirs.” The hands-on experiments, which included everything from trying to put kids inside bubbles to cleaning up an ice cream oil spill, were “simple,” said Vennero, “but demonstrate some good concepts.”

Call it simple if you will, but between the trebuchet catapulting oranges outside the school and the exploding volcano, which nearly blew through the roof of the school, the day was jam-packed with learning and enthusiasm.

Taking responsibility for the students, clad in lab coats, who set the volcano erupting into the ceiling, AP environmental science teacher Matthew Parks said, “I like that fact that my kids really get into it.” He continued, “Most of this is hands-on so they don’t have to think science is this scary boring thing.”

The AP students will be making stops at and next week.