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Students Put On Science Show

News - Osawatomie

Written by Travis Perry

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 09:00

Janzen Maring tensed up a bit as she was lowered onto the bed of rusty-looking nails, and the crowd gathered around her inhaled sharply when a second nail-laden bed was laid on top of her, sandwiching the Osawatomie High School student between the two layers of spikes.

Osawatomie High School student Tabitha Keast is helped up by science teacher Mike Schainost as she puts her full weight on Janzen Marring, who is sandwiched between two boards covered in nails, while fifth grade students at Trojan Elementary look on. (photo by Travis Perry)

However, the assemblage of fifth-graders clapped and cheered when Tabitha Keast stepped on top, showing that Janzen was unharmed. It was a simple demonstration of evenly distributed pressure presented in a unique, dramatic manner, and it held the attention and focus of students at Trojan Elementary School on Thursday afternoon.

Put on by several students from advanced science classes at OHS, the show featured multiple demonstrations designed to not only pique a scientific interest in young students, but also to allow the high school students to practice what they have been studying. From flammable gases to litmus paper, the OHS students showcased a wide range of scientific phenomena, helping the fifth-graders to understand that science is more than textbooks and calculations.

In addition to Keast and Maring, other OHS students who helped put on the show included Brendan Soucie, Megan Bertone, Kirsten Scott, Matthew Dickinson, Jon Hilliard and Trevor Needham.

Clad in a white lab coat, OHS science teacher Mike Schainost directed the group of students throughout the event. Although this was the students’ first performance of the year, the science showcase is a regular activity put on by OHS students, stretching back 15 or 16 years, Schainost said.
“We’ve done science shows for eight to 10 different school districts,” he noted. “We want to excite the kids for science.”

And excite them, the group certainly did. Throughout the roughly 45-minute performance, the throng of Trojan fifth-graders sat in anticipation of what could come next. They eagerly answered any questions thrown at them from the high school students and let loose several rounds of applause during the show.

Jeff White, Trojan Elementary principal, said he welcomes the annual performance and thinks it can only lead to good things in students’ minds.

“I hope the younger kids get more of an interest, so when they get into high school they participate in science,” he said.

However, Schainost said, the event is just as much for the older students as it is for the younger ones; it gives them a chance to showcase what they have learned through the years and to put it into action.

Still, Keast said all the knowledge in the world couldn’t keep her from being nervous when she put her full body weight on top of Maring, pressing the nail-laden boards on top of her. She said Thursday’s performance was the first time she had actually performed the feat.

“I was really scared; I’m not going to lie,” she said.

Schainost said the Trojan show was a somewhat abbreviated version of the science students’ normal routine; that was primarily because it was the group’s first show of the year. He added that as they practice the experiments and get everything solidified, the performance will be expanded.

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