 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Keeping young hands busy Science experiments popular at summer program
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, July 11, 2013
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
A summer program helped to keep boredom at bay for Fort Simpson students during their first weeks off of school.
Kaden Nahanni-Kwasney, left, stirs a bowl of pancake batter while Zephyr Fabre-Dimsdale waits for his turn to help during the Open Doors Society's summer program in Fort Simpson on July 4. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
|
The Open Doors Society offered its annual summer program from June 24 to July 5. Every day, the society's staff ran four different types of activities, including a craft, a science experiment, an active game and a cooking option.
The science experiments were among the most popular events. The soda pop geyser was Mary-Anne Muyambo's favourite.
Working in pairs, participants were given a two-litre bottle of Diet Pepsi and some Mentos. The youth rolled up a piece of paper to create a tube to drop the Mentos into the bottle. A toothpick with a string attached to it was put in the bottom of each feeder tube so the young scientists could control the timing of the experiment.
Once out of the way, the youth pulled the pin and watched the reaction. Pop immediately shot right out of the bottle, said Muyambo. She used eight Mentos for an extra-strong reaction.
"It was fun," the 11-year-old said about the summer program.
Muyambo went to the program every day, except one. Without the activities, Muyambo said she would have been "really bored."
The soda pop geyser was also JC Larter's favourite.
"It went really high," he said.
The nine-year-old also enjoyed some of the craft projects.
"I liked the beads we melted with the iron," he said.
"I made all kinds of creations."
The youth also had fun with the egg drop, said Natasha Sanguez, one of the society's staff members.
Participants were challenged to create something that would protect an egg from cracking when dropped from a height. The resulting creations were tested outside. Most of the eggs lasted through several drops from steadily-increasing heights.
"They had a lot of fun doing that," she said.
Explosions encouraged
Explosions were also encouraged on June 25. Participants poured vinegar into Ziploc bags and then carefully held a small pouch of baking soda inside the bag above the vinegar.
When the bag was sealed, they released the baking soda and watched the reaction. Some of the bags just expanded, but others popped, said Sanguez.
Although the activities proved to be popular, attendance at the program was well below normal. Most summers, the cap of 19 participants for each activity is reached and some have to be turned away, she said. This year, the largest number of participants, 12, were drawn in by the pre-Canada day bike decorating on June 28.
The youth rode bikes festooned with lots of streamers and balloons in the parade on July 1.
| 
