Hands-on science experiments wow kids at annual OSU event

Oregon State University graduate chemistry student Jim Neeway gingerly picked up a purple cabbage leaf with a pair of tongs and placed it in a styrofoam cooler full of liquid nitrogen.

A group of Franklin School first-graders watched the process closely. The liquid immediately began to bubble and smoke, and Neeway explained to the kids that the nitrogen "boils" because it is so much colder than the cabbage.

Then came the really fun part.

Neeway plucked the cabbage leaf out of the nitrogen with his tongs, placed it on a plastic tray and invited a girl to "smash it."

The girl enthusiastically complied and shards of shattered cabbage leaf flew across the tray.

Just one of the many hands-on science experiments for kids at OSU's Discovery Days, cabbage smashing was so compelling that a teacher's assistant had a hard time getting the children to move on to the next demonstration.

But there was so much to do at the event, held Wednesday and Thursday at OSU's LaSells Stewart Center for about 1,800 kids from around the Willamette Valley and beyond.

Nearby, a girl spun round and round in a chair, propelled by two large magnets she held in her hand. Across the room a boy used a Geiger counter to measure the radioactivity of a watch with glow-in-the-dark hands.

Volunteers from OSU's departments of chemistry, chemical engineering, fisheries and wildlife, nuclear engineering, physics, microbiology, and science and math were on hand to share with the children the wonders of science, in hopes of fostering children's interest.

"It's to keep kids excited about science and engineering and to show them that science is something that you do rather than read about in a book," OSU chemistry instructor and Discovery Days organizer Margie Haak said. "The big thing is really doing science and hands-on instead of reading science."

A popular exhibit was a room full of snakes, turtles, alligators, frogs and other creepy, crawly things brought by Brad's World Reptiles.

Sixth-grader Austin Martin from Holley School near Sweet Home listened with rapt attention as animal educator Keith Starling answered questions about the albino Burmese python draped around his neck.

"Does it have teeth?" Martin asked. "It doesn't have bones, does it?"

Starling explained that although the snake is a constrictor, it does have teeth, as well as a very flexible skeleton that can accommodate a swallowed rat or rabbit.

"They're just different than how we are," Starling said.

Martin was inspired by the event and figures some of the exhibits and experiments he's done this day will play a role in his future career. He does not plan on being a scientist or engineer, but a writer.

"Science fiction," Martin said. "A lot of fiction books."

And featured in those books, Martin said, will be "electronics, spiders and lots of snakes."