DES MOINES — Two busloads and many private vehicles unloaded their passengers at the Science Center of Iowa (SCI) Tuesday evening just before 6 p.m.
The payload were many of the students of St. Patrick’s Catholic school and their parents, who spent two hours touring a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) festival at the SCI.
Twenty-six interactive experiments and displays, sponsored by a variety of business, academic institutions and others, were added to the normal permanent exhibits. The students needed no encouragement at all in immediately scattering throughout the building, joyfully moving from place to place with smiling faces.
“This is great!” kindergartner Walker Platt said while busily working on at a station where blocks could be positioned to move flowing water over miniature spinning wheels, thus demonstrating the power of water.
The mills were electronically connected to a meter that judged the speed at which it revolved, with the results shown on an LED board for the students to observe. “I like being able to try different ways of making it work better,” Platt said.
Middle school student Gannon Meis said constructing his own paper rocket — to be fired by compressed air down a chute — was one of his favorite experiments.
“You can see how the smallest changes can make a big difference,” he said. “This was a lot of fun.”
Students spent time extracting DNA from strawberries, learning how wireless technology is used on the International Space Station, building structures with gumdrops and toothpicks and testing their strength, observing how the pH content of water can impact marine life, using dice to learn about probability and much more.
Common remarks included, “I don’t know what to go to next,” “Did you see that?!?” and “That was fun!”
St. Patrick’s Principal Eddie Diaz said the goal of the evening was a simple one.
“We want to encourage learning being fun,” he said. “It doesn’t all have to be something out of a book, and kids love learning with hands-on projects.”
One look at the smiling faces Tuesday was all it took to realize the efforts of organizing the field trip well worth it.
