Ella Kitchens, Asst. News Editor–
Once a year, Denison’s physics department invites local elementary school students to look at the stars and the universe around them.
On Feb. 20, the Olin Science Hall was buzzing with excitement as two classes of second graders from Granville Elementary School were led down the halls. The classes separated, one going to a planetarium show by physics and astronomy professor Dr. Wes Walter, and the other going to a demonstration by physics students.
The demonstration involved seven experiments that seemed to defy reality. With each experiment, the physics students explained to the children in an interactive way how they were possible.
The first experiment involved a board with only a couple of nails that popped a balloon, while a board with many nails did not. During the second experiment, the students invited a child to try to stand on a plastic cup, which failed, but then to stand on a bunch of cups under a board, which worked.
Next, two students showed the children mats that were difficult to pick up, despite their light weight, because of the lack of air to push up from underneath them. Then they showed them the effect of a balloon and marshmallow in a vacuum.
As the second graders watched, two physics students took a small container and asked how many balloons would fit in the container. The second graders thought maybe one or two, but watched in amazement as the physics students pulled out balloon after balloon, each shriveled, that expanded into full balloons as they were taken out of the freezing liquid nitrogen within.
Last, the students showed the children the difference between a frozen and regular hammer made out of a banana, and a bouncy ball that shattered into pieces when frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Dr. Melanie Lott, associate professor and Chair of Physics & Astronomy, said that while some of the students had been part of the demonstration for previous years, some had just learned these demos that day.
“We’ve been doing outreach with the second graders from Granville for a long time,” said Lott. “The demos have evolved over time, but you can see a lot of them are on the topic of pressure, temperature, and volume.”
“We’ve thought about maybe new things that we could implement or things we could change in the future,” said Henry Kline, ‘25. “But they’re fun demos meant to be a little eye-catching and fun for the age group.”
After the physics demonstration, the second graders watched the planetarium show. As the sky, moon, planets, and stars appeared on the dome ceiling, Walter explained how they functioned. He explained the rotation of the earth and moon, and pointed out constellations.
The planetarium has also been refurbished in the previous year. “[The old planetarium] could show you beautiful images of what the sky looked like with your naked eye, but that’s all that it could show. And it was gorgeous and we did lots and lots of field trips and shows, but the only things we could show were what you could see with just your eyes,” Walter said.
With the renovation, Walter was able to take students on a journey through the solar system and planets. While the field trips began when Walter invited his daughter’s second grade class to Denison, several professors have done the planetarium shows for students.
“We come up with some of the things on our own and then we’re often sharing them with each other and saying, ‘hey, here’s a neat way to show this or to present that,’ ” he said.
Walter hopes that the physics demonstration and the planetarium show sparked interest in science and space in the second graders who visited.
“I hope it will make them closer to the universe, that they will learn more about space and that they’ll feel more connected to it, so that they will be able to really enjoy learning more about space,” said Walter. “That connection will make them feel that they can look up and know some of the things that are there and maybe even learn more, and that they can participate in that process of scientific discovery.”