'Celebration of Science' a Stand-Out School Memory

Last week, the main event at Oak Arbor School was the much-anticipated Celebration of Science. 

My kids were counting down the days. Every child in the school, from pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade, had a hand in this evening event, which relatives and friends attended on Thursday in the Oak Arbor Social Hall.

All around the edges of the large hall, each student had set up his or her own booth with a poster-board tri-fold and a demonstration. Each child had chosen a science topic of personal interest, and the diversity was amazing.

Projects and topics included:

• Backyard beekeeping with honey samples to taste
• A demonstration on the (goopy and fascinating) properties of colloids
• Automotive electrical connectors
• Your sense of smell (you could take different smell tests to see what you could identify)
• A demonstration that included samples of dry-ice ice cream
• A student who had learned how to create and measure different musical notes by running wet fingers around the rims of different shapes and sizes of drinking glasses 

It was obvious from looking at the beautifully done tri-folds and demonstrations that a lot of research had been done, and that the kids were genuinely interested in their chosen topics and what they’d learned.

Some of the research had been done at the library and online, and some had been accomplished by conducting experiments. As I wandered around the room, I found that each kid was ready and able to discuss their research and show you how their demonstration worked. I learned quite a lot that I didn’t know just by talking to the kids. 

has a reputation for doing a great job of training kids from a young age to present themselves and articulate their ideas clearly and with poise, and this training was clearly evident throughout the evening. The eager enthusiasm and pride of accomplishment were obvious.

There were tables of science-related toys and gadgets designed to keep little kids happy while their older relatives were busy (though I spotted quite a few visitors at those tables who would not have passed as “little kids”). And the refreshments were extremely creative and related to science – even the punch bowl, with bits of dry ice bubbling and steaming in it.

All in all, it was a great experience for everyone involved, and it was the kind of event that the kids will remember long after they have forgotten many of the details of what they learned at school.