Jackson Avenue Students Dabble in "Mad Science"

Spirits and paper airplanes soared through the Wednesday afternoon as kindergarten through fifth grade children gathered in the art room for a flight-oriented edition of the "Mad Science" after-school program scheduled by the PTA.

Mad Science of Long Island offers many types of learning enrichment programs to elementary and pre-school children. Instructors from the organization visit the schools and teach students about topics including weather, sound, heat and magnetism among others. The pupils are then encouraged to learn by participating in activities that give them personal experience.

Last week an instructor and aspiring Earth Science teacher named "Cosmic Constance" showed up to give Jackson Avenue a lesson in the science behind magic. This week, Constance returned to teach the same group of kids about aerodynamics.

Children energetically answered "wind!" and "jets!" when asked how airplanes were able to fly." As the little ones were to find out, there are in fact four forces that affect flight. Students experienced the first force – lift – by blowing underneath thin paper and watching the ensuing wind raise the sheets.

The next force shown to them was thrust. This was relayed to them through a deflating balloon zipping around the classroom to their delight. One child conveniently missed the demonstration and the class forced Constance to repeat the act.

The little cadets were enthralled in the lesson by the time the third force – gravity – was introduced. The real fun started after the final force of drag was displayed through a floating piece of paper.

At this point, the kids folded away to create "Delta Darts," which closely resembled old-fashioned paper airplanes. These proved to be a little too intricate for the children so Constance moved on to helicopter-like "Twirling Dirigibles" and "Rotor Kites" before introducing the premier experiment of the day: the "Sky Hawk."

These foam airplanes complete with a rubber band launching mechanism were simple for the kids to construct. They were able to do so while answering Constance's questions about the previously discussed forces of flight. The temptation to let the Sky Hawks fly was palpable as one youngster could not resist: "it actually works!" he exclaimed with joy upon his plane's take-off. The rest of the children clutched their creations and seemingly could not wait to test them out at home.

"It is good for the kids to get hands-on experience and additional practice with science," Principal Matthew Gaven said after ushering the future top guns out of school for the day. According to Constance, both children and parents have been giving the program positive reviews. "One little girl even came up to me ahead of time asking about the lesson plan for the day," she said.

Cosmic Constance will return next week to teach the group about either the architectural science behind structures or "fun-damental forces."