Fox Meadow Students Learn Cool Things About Science

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY — Have you ever wondered if you dip a banana in liquid nitrogen whether it would freeze so that you could use it as a hammer? Students at Fox Meadow Middle/High School recently found out the answer to that question thanks to a visit from Wondergy, a Philadelphia-based company that presented a program called "Cool Science."

“So many people think they are not scientists,” said presenter Ken Fink, addressing Fox Meadow students. “But all of science is trying out a theory and then doing an experiment over and over to prove that theory. We’ve been doing that since we were babies and dropped something to see if it would fall. A baby does that repeatedly to see if they will get the same outcome. That is science.”

Fink explored molecules, evaporation and what happens when you freeze things.

Sporting a can of liquid nitrogen, Fink poured it into a glass container.

“How can you tell whether this is hot or cold?” he asked students, who responded that they could see the frost; the air went down instead of up, as heated steam would; and when you blow on the container, you could feel the cold air.

Students got to help Fink test his theses.

Student Isaiah Thompson, of Yonkers, volunteered to dip a banana in the liquid nitrogen to see what would happen. The banana froze when the temperature was lowered below its freezing point.

When Fink asked if the banana was hard enough to use as a hammer, Thompson correctly guess that it was.

“Will the banana be hard enough to hammer into this piece of wood?” asked Fink. Isaiah, who guessed it would be, proceeded to use the frozen banana to successfully hammer the nail into the wood.

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