December is here, and the traditional signs are all around campus. Cold winds blow. Snow flurries fly. ¶¶Òõ̽̽ students hunker down for finals. And local eighth graders are taking fieldtrips to the STEM complex and the Davis Center.
has a many-year history of bringing students to ¶¶Òõ̽̽ during finals week for the students to get a feel for what college is like and see some exciting science demonstrations. They return this year, coordinated by Lisa Windhausen, who brought 48 students to see hour-long science shows from the Chemistry and Physics Departments.
In the physics show, Jaylynn Emmons and Patrick Charron assisted Professor Luke Donforth with various demonstrations highlighting forces, properties of matter, and unexpected occurrences. Eighth graders got to sit at the same tables they would work at as college students at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ and got a few of the questions that would be posed to them; although without the homework. They played with some hands-on experiments and saw some - like the ping-pong ball cannon - that needed to be handled by professionals.
In chemistry, Travis Verret and Jacqueline Chant talked about reactions, safety, setting things on fire, and career opportunities. Possible jobs include being a research scientist, but also opportunities that may not have been immediately apparent to students as requiring chemistry, like being a pyrotechnician. Classic demonstrations, like dissolving a Styrofoam head, always elicit excitement and wonder from the students. Mr. Verret said, "I was down to my last gallon of acetone at the end of the term, but it was worth using it up to give them a good show".
Ms. Windhausen drew connections back to what the students were studying in their modules back at Browns River and took them around campus so they could envision themselves there as students down the road. We certainly hope to see them come back.
