By By: Ashley Bergeron
Staff-Writer
The St. Joseph County Library held its 31st annual Science Alive event on Feb. 11, a free event where community members and children can enjoy educational science displays. There were exhibitors such as ND Energy and Prairie Wind Farms that helped inspire young minds. Some of these exhibits had live animals, interactive activities and more.
There were three IU South Bend clubs at Science Alive. Each club has been participating in the program for years.
Anthropology Club
Their exhibit focused on human evolution. There were fossil hominid model skulls that the children could interact with. Seven students helped with the exhibit and were there to answer any questions the young scientists had.
Bio-Chem Club
Attendees were able to make slime by using borax, water, glue and food coloring. There were dissecting microscopes where the young scientists could view either live or preserved specimens, which included a flamingo feather, a beetle, roundworms and moldy bread. The last activity that was provided was figuring out what fossil belonged to which animal. People were allowed to take a fossil with them.
Physics Club
By using the app Phyphox, children were able to participate in a scavenger hunt. Two features from the app that were tested were the applause meter and the acceleration (without g) sensor. The applause meter measured how loud the sound was over a period of time. Children in attendance were asked to clap as loud as they could.
The acceleration (without g) sensor measured the acceleration that was imputed to the phone. Attendees were asked to banged on the table as fast as they could. The young scientists and their family were given a piece of paper to try more experiments at home. This scavenger hunt paper came in both English and Spanish.
Overall, Science Alive was a success. The children were full of questions about topics ranging from microscopes to sound waves. Let’s see what the scientists at IU South Bend and the community do next year at Science Alive.
