November 13, 2008: Volume 74, Number 10

Fun with physics: Union students inspire local youngsters during school visit

Buckets, balls, bananas and balloons – these are some of the ordinary objects Union students used to take physics lessons out of the textbook and into the hands and minds of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

Tom Perry ’09, Daniel Otto ’11, Shivani Pathak ’10 and Hillary Bauer ’11, all members of the Society of Physics Students, Union College Chapter, joined Professor Samuel Amanuel at Schenectady’s Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School last week.

They performed experiments and did other “really cool, interesting stuff,” as Perry told his young audience.

One of those cool things was overturning a bucket with liquid that immediately turned into a gas that permeated the air, surprising and delighting the children. Perry explained that it was liquid nitrogen, which is a liquid when cold but turns to gas at room temperature.

The Union classmates also submerged a rubber ball, banana and balloons in the liquid nitrogen, then showed how the banana broke like glass when hit with a hammer. The children had one word for it: “Wow.”

“We want to trigger the youngsters’ interest in the field of science and encourage them to start looking ahead to college,” Amanuel said.

The physics visit was part of a program with Union’s Kenney Community Center, which has a longstanding relationship with Blodgett Principal Nancy Fontaine, formerly a teacher leader for Kenney’s SAIL (Studying Arithmetic in Literature) Program. 

“We’re constantly looking for ways to bring our students and the city students together,” said Kenney Director Angela Tatem.

Not only does the physics outreach enrich the undergraduate experience, she said, but it lets local school children “know that this is where they can meet people who are interested in seeing them succeed.”

<< Previous Story Balinese masks find a home at...

Next Story >> People in the news