SPRINGDALE — Students clapped and smiled Monday as colored foam burst from the top of water bottles during a science experiment.
The students were among 40 middle schoolers attending the I Do Science Camp at Helen Tyson Middle School. They created chemical reactions — like mixing corn starch and water — to show physical and chemical changes.
They also created solar-powered ovens using boxes, cardboard tubes, string, tape, foil, plastic wrap, newspaper and scissors. They set the ovens in the sun with s’mores inside and watched the temperature increase on temperature probes, a type of electronic thermometer. They shrieked in excitement when the temperature went up and sighed when it went down.
At A Glance
Camp Activities
• Monday — Chemical reactions and creating solar ovens to make s’mores.
• Tuesday — Building model race cars to demonstrate the laws of physics and using coordinates to find locations in the school.
• Wednesday — Simulation of climbing Mount Everest to understand the effect of altitude on the human body.
• Thursday — Calculating the percentage of a fruit that is edible.
• Friday — Building rockets and a liquid nitrogen experiment.
Source: Staff Report
I Do Science Camp is part of a year-round fellowship, GK-12, said Tammy Guthery, a sixth-grade math teacher at Tyson. The program is run through the University of Arkansas.
The fellowship partners with middle schools because students tend to start losing interest in science around that age, said Morgan Ware, director of the university’s GK-12 program.
“There’s something getting lost in the middle schools,” he said.
A lot of kids have a negative view of science, said Mary Herndon, a sixth-grade science teacher at Tyson. She said they become negative because they think there is only one right answer, and it frustrates them.
The hands-on activities at the camp help kids to understand that science is more about analysis and understanding the world around them, Herndon said.
Gabby Rushton, an eighth-grader at Southwest Junior High School, said she wants to be a doctor. The camp is teaching her to use different methods to find answers to scientific problems.
“It’s a way to explore new things,” she said.
The program and camp have inspired some of the activities in her regular class, Herndon said. Her class focuses on chemical reactions for a full week.
GK-12 and the camp are paid for by a grant from the National Science Foundation, Ware said. The program received $5 million over six years. This is the final year of the grant. They are looking for ways to fund the program next year.
University of Arkansas graduate students can get their tuition paid through the fellowship, said Craig Lind, a graduate student in biology. Participants in the fellowship work on research projects and partner with math and science teachers in middle schools.
Six graduates from the program are teaching at the camp, Ware said.
A message left with Sonia Ortega, GK-12 program director at the National Science Foundation, was not returned by 5 p.m. Monday.
The camp is free and open to students at middle schools in Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers who had a GK-12 graduate student in their class during the past school year, Guthery said. The camp runs all week from 8:30 a.m. to noon.