Science Night

By: Mae Thompson

Thursday November 19, 2009, ExcelAcademy hosted its annual Science Night! Science night is a family night full of science activities, experiments and even real live animals. This night is dedicated to families to get educated about science and learn that science is fun. At Science Night the admission was simply a can of food for Arvada Food Bank Some of the science themed activities that are at Science Night include lemon batteries, finger printing, microscopes, and even exhibits that teach about the human body. When students were asked about all of the activities the most common word was "Cool!" There were many great hands on activities, such as petting a snake, tasting food, building structures of the periodic table, and even an exhibit that teaches about Saturn's rings. Guest speaker Tracey Southland from Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado did an experiment with liquid nitrogen; her demonstration was putting a flower into the liquid nitrogen. After a couple of minutes in the liquid nitrogen, the flower froze. Then by simply tapping the flower on a table it shattered into pieces. This is only one out of the many experiments that happened at Science night.

There was another part to science night which included the start of Science fair projects. The participants ranged from Kindergarten to 8 th grade. The projects could range from biology to zoology. I got the chance to talk to Mr. Shearer, the coordinator of the science fair. When asked about the point of the science fair his response was quite simple; "The point of the science fair is to disprove or prove a theory." ExcelAcademy is very excited to see all of the final science projects. Overall the Science Night is an Excel tradition that continues to evolve and grow into an enriching experience for students, parents, and teachers at ExcelAcademy.