PTA Makes Science Fun at OPS

Over the next few weeks, the (OPS) PTA is sponsoring three timely and exciting after-school science workshops for students from Kindergarten through sixth grade. Created by the PTA’s “Science Fun” committee, led by Mary Lang and Chris Schwake, each of the workshops is geared to give students hands-on, real-life experiences with science in a fun, after-school setting. 

“We selected topics and experiments that were relevant to the students’ lives during the past few months,” said Lang, an engineer and parent to a first- and a sixth-grader, “so that they could go home and engage their families in a science-based discussion about the floods or the earthquake and really make a connection between what is learned in school and the real world.”

This week, students learned about “Water in Motion” from parent volunteers, professional engineers and scientists, students will learn about the physical properties of water, how gravity affects water, and how rain can create flooding in our area. Featuring several hands-on experiments and photographs of how Bergen County was affected by the recent hurricane, students will have the opportunity to see how science can be applied to their lives and neighborhoods and learn from people who use science every day in their careers. More than 90 kindergarten and first grade students attended the after-school workshop.

The second workshop, entitled “Shake, Rattle, and Roll…An Introduction to Earthquakes,” will take place on January 18, 2:30 to 4pm where students in grades 3 and 4 will discover why some structures stand through an earthquake while others fall. Students will experiment by building sugar houses and learn how soils can play a major part in the lasting effect of an earthquake.

Lastly, the Science Fun committee will host “Shake Rattle, and Roll…An Earthquake Challenge” for OPS 5^th and 6^th grade students on Wednesday, January 25, 2:30 to 4pm. In this after-school workshop, students will be challenged to discover the factors that affect how structures perform during an earthquake. Students will attempt to build the strongest and tallest buildings of their own design and then have the opportunity to test their creations on a shake table that simulates what happens during an earthquake.