KOLOA — How can air crush a soda can? That was just one of the 14 projects Koloa School students could graphically see when they showed up with their parents for the school’s Science Night, Thursday. Debbie Lindsey, the school’s
KOLOA — How can air crush a soda can?
That was just one of the 14 projects Koloa School students could graphically see when they showed up with their parents for the school’s Science Night, Thursday.
Debbie Lindsey, the school’s principal, said this Science Night was the first for Koloa School and tied in with the students’ science curriculum.
“We kept talking about it for a long time,” Lindsey said. “But finally, we just said ‘we gotta do it!’”
The audience arrived with a sense of anticipation, and as students and parents worked their way around the exhibits and demonstrations set up in the school’s cafeteria, they were amazed and impressed with the amount of information available using common everyday items to learn about air.
A hot air balloon fashioned out of light plastic sheeting and heated by air from a hair dryer rose magically to the cafeteria ceiling, mesmerizing young students. As the air inside the balloon cooled, it drifted slowly back to where a volunteer could reheat the air.
“We had a lot of help to make this happen,” Lindsey said. “The teachers, staff, parent volunteers and our friends at Kukui‘ula Development Company all stepped up to the plate for this. Additionally, we got help from Kalaheo School who shared their materials with us to make this happen.”
Other stations involved students (and an occasional parent and teacher) taking a ride on a homemade hovercraft, shooting marshmallows using compressed air, crushing aluminum drink cans using a burner and iced water, watching rubber balls hover over streams of air generated by fans and hair dryers.
In addition to the science learning projects, Lindsey said they got more help from the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School who brought over its planetarium and some students to help Koloa students learn about the constellations.
“We had something like this last month, but this turnout is far better,” said David Hutchinson, one of the volunteers for the Kaua‘i Education Association for Space and Astronomy, who was on hand to help students and parents with the telescope he set up on the school lawn.
As the clouds flowed across the night sky, there were opportunities to view a comet that recently exploded and is still visible in Hawai‘i’s night skies.
Otherwise, Hutchinson jockeyed the telescope to home in on close-up views of the moon, Jupiter and its four moons, and other celestial bodies.
“We had a Reading night earlier in the year,” Lindsey said. “Now we have the Science Night. In the Spring, we’re planning a Math Night where parents and students have an opportunity to learn math together using simple things like a deck of cards, and games.”
Lindsey said the events are all designed to give families an opportunity to learn together.
