Cortland Standard .net

By TYRONE L. HEPPARD
Staff Reporter
theppard@cortlandstandardnews.net
As part of their week of year-end activities, students at Smith Elementary School in Cortland had a chance Thursday to take a hands-on approach to learning about science when the Ithaca Physics Factory’s Physics Bus rolled to a stop outside.
The visit is part of a week of activities the school is calling “Camp Learned-A-Lot.” Kindergarten teacher Judi Haskins and music teacher Lauren Smith said they wanted to surprise students with these activities after a long year.
“We’ really didn’t tell them (students) anything about it,” Haskins said. “It’s really hard at the end of the year sometimes to just kind of keep them focused, and we wanted to keep them learning and having fun.”
All day, the shiny silver school bus designed to look like a spaceship was parked next to the fields near the elementary school. Inside, most of the seating was removed to accommodate about 10 different stations relating to physics.
Student Bryce Lane, 6, was playing with a Slinky suspended from the roof and connected to a small amplifier. Every time he wiggled the metal coil, the energy he transferred through it was converted into sound.
Grace Pealo, 7, was the only one of her group of friends willing to touch her hand to a small electric shock generator. The small orb delivered a static shock similar to what someone would receive while wearing wool socks after touching a door knob.
Just outside the Physics Bus, students took turns launching water rockets made out of plastic soda bottles, making giant soap bubbles out of string and playing with a hovercraft made out of a simple vacuum.
Smith said she heard about the Physics Bus from a Cornell University employee and fellow member of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers chorus she is a part of in Ithaca.
“We set it up and got them here ... and it just worked out perfectly,” Smith said.
The Physics Factory, which provides the bus, is a nonprofit organization based in Tuscon, Arizona, which promotes science education through student mentoring, providing resources to science teachers and by holding events and demonstrations.
A chapter was started in Ithaca last year, and Claire Fox, director of education for the Physics Factory, was showing students how all of the various stations worked Thursday afternoon.
Fox said throughout the day her goal was for students to come away from the Physics Bus amazed and eager to learn more about science.
“They’re (students) going to go to science class and they’re going to learn their facts,” Fox said. “Our purpose is just to get them ... curious and excited about science. Our purpose is really to just spark theirimagination.”
One station included a microphone connected to a small TV with a thin, vertical line on the screen. Smith said when she had some of her students sing a song, they were excited to see how the line moved to the frequency of their voices.
Smith said she liked how the Physics Bus already seemed to have an effect on students as it used science to pique students’ interest and better understand other classes like music.
Erik Herman, Cornell researcher and founder of the Physics Factory, said the Ithaca Physics Bus has only been around for a few months, and that the trip to Smith Elementary was its first visit to Cortland. The bus was acquired through a fundraising campaign which also secured $12,000 to outfit it.
Herman said he thinks one of the reasons students like the Physics Bus is because it feels more like fun and less like a science class.
“Science play is educative, whether learning is intended or not,” Herman said. “What kids feel when they’re on the bus is that they can just chill, even though they’re in the thick of physics stuff. Kids don’t typically get other occasions to chill with physics.”
Herman said he was disappointed he could not visit Smith Elementary School, but he added that the Physics Factory and the Physics Bus plan on being in the area for a long time.
“We’re here to stay,” Herman said.