A wide-eyed young scientist at the 2006 Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day was one of hundreds of local youth drawn to more than 30 hands-on science activities, including opportunities to glimpse solar flares through a telescope.

Students get a lot of science
with their fun

Give kids balloons and "rockets" to play with and they'll have a blast. At NAU they're learning at the same time.

James Manley, clinical instructor of teaching and learning in Northern Arizona University's College of Education, will invite students in his accelerated teacher education program to next weekend's Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day to demonstrate how they can make science challenging and fun.

"I like to brag about this program because of the field experience component," Manley says. "The Flagstaff Festival of Science is one of the service projects I'm requiring so we can strut our stuff."

Manley and his students will present creative hands-on activities that explore physics, air pressure, propulsion, sound and electricity to share "a lens of how our world works."

Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day, part of the 10-day Flagstaff Festival of Science, will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 22 at NAU's Wettaw Building, #88.

In a demonstration of the physics of motion, participants will have the opportunity to make balloon rockets shooting across a string, after which they can measure the distance traveled using the angled string as a variable.

Manley also plans to make Alka-Seltzer rockets using film canisters. Those projectiles will be tested outside.

Other experiments for Mountain Campus Science and Engineering Day include Earth science activities using "germination bags" kids can take home and sound tests investigating the movement of sound waves through string, water and air.

Manley will be giving his students plenty of room to develop the experiments. The accelerated teacher education program is part of a course of studies in which preservice teachers apply research and theory in the real world of an elementary class.