Science program has students bubbling with excitement

    Recently I had the pleasure of joining Karen Lemley’s kindergarten class at Naples Elementary School, where my daughter, Alana, is a student.

    Excitement filled the air as students learned about science through a weekly program known as Scientist of the Week.

    Each week a different student brings home a scientist kit with protective goggles, a magnifying glass, latex gloves and a list of projects. The student decides what experiment they would like to present to the class.

    It was Alana’s turn last Thursday.

    The children sat in a circle around Alana as she performed her experiment. Each child could make predictions about what would happen.

    “I enjoy hearing the children’s predictions,” Lemley said. “It varies so much. When we first started the program, the students would make predictions such as ‘it’s going to explode.’ Now the children will say ‘let’s make realistic predictions.’ You can tell they are really learning.”

    After Alana finished her experiment, each child recorded observations in their science journal.

    Haylee Chouinard said she enjoyed bringing home her scientist kit and wearing her white jacket with a name tag.

    “I had a lot of fun performing my experiment and learning new things in class, said.

    Layla Kibler'sexperiment involved using a jar, water, rubber band and handkerchief. She secured the jar and then turned it upside down.

“It made bubbles because there was air in the handkerchief,” Layla said.

    Christopher DeSpain may have been the most excited about his experiment. He took a bowl with some root beer and added dry ice.

    “There was bubbles, lots and lots of bubbles, a giant root beer slushy,” Christopher said. “You know what was the best part? We got to drink the root beer and it almost gave me brain freeze.”

    For Ethan Whitaker’s experiment, he learned how plants drink water. Ethan used two glasses of water, two celery sticks and food coloring.

    He placed red food coloring in one glass and blue food coloring in the other.

    “Within a matter of days the celery absorbed the water and turned red and blue,” Ethan said.