Green Chimneys

What do you get when you cross science wizards with students eager to put down their pencils and do some creative problem solving? Last week, IBM specialists and technicians found the answer as they took time out of their busy schedules to conduct science experiments with students at Green Chimneys.

The combination was dynamic. In one classroom, students collaborated with IBM volunteers to create “space probes.” Working in small groups, they constructed a probe that could carry a “payload” of small metal washers using a balloon, a drinking straw, fishing line and tape. The goal was to create the heaviest transportable payload in the class and most groups had enough time to attempt two or three launches.

To make things even more interesting, Mary Murray, IBM manager of corporate citizenship, suggested that teams compete with each other to see whose space probe could carry the heaviest payload. After a pep talk from Green Chimneys board member Mike Otten (who once worked on the first Apollo space mission as an IBM employee), they were off!

The excitement in the room was palpable. Each volunteer joined a student team and stood close by to advise. Students worked together, connecting balloons to straws threaded with fishing line. Next, the payloads were attached. After blowing up the balloons, students sealed them with twist ties so they’d be easy to untie for blast-off.

A volunteer would hold the fishing line taut for his or her team while a student untied the balloon and prepared it for take off. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! Then, blast-off! The balloon probe rushed up the line with the payloads – but not always… that was the learning experience.

At the end of the class, the team that launched the heaviest payload won a science game to take home, and all participants were awarded smaller prizes. It was definitely a win-win situation.

“As we started each class period, we could see from the expressions on the students' faces that they weren't sure what to expect from us,” said Murray. “But, as each period progressed, the kids really became involved with their engineering challenge.”

According to Green Chimneys’ curriculum specialist Rick Graham, the IBM activities were aligned to New York State educational standards and selected because they linked with topics the students were currently studying. For instance, the “space probe" activity tied in with the students’ astronomy unit. That activity, and a second one involving raw pasta and marshmallows, were adapted from the TryScience web site (www.tryscience.org) that IBM created with the NY Hall of Science.

In a second classroom, younger students were charged with building a spaghetti or linguini bridge that would be strong enough to support a paper coin basket filled with pennies. Once again, students were thoroughly engaged as they put their heads and hands together to problem solve.

Each team built at least two bridges, and in the process, entered the world of variables. Whether on purpose or by accident, “the second bridge was usually made of more or fewer marshmallows, or the marshmallow would get gooey from the heat of their hands, or the bridge would be shorter or longer,” said Eileen Masselli, an IBM volunteer. As a result, everyone was surprised when one type of bridge held more penny weight than another.

One team tried sticking their structure to the table with the marshmallow, thinking that would make it stronger. Instead, the lack of motion and flexibility led to the structure breaking more easily under the weight of the coins. This and other attempts gave the IBM volunteers occasion to discuss variables and how they can affect scientific experiments while giving the students ample opportunity to experience true scientific method (hypothesis, test, and result).

“In general, the experiments were more about enjoying science and the scientific method than actual results achieved,” said Masselli. “They learned by changing certain attributes of the structures, the outcomes would change as well.”

As with the space probe project, the spaghetti bridge-makers were not only fascinated with their own results, but also with those of the other teams. As one team’s coin basket would reach 20 coins or more, the rest of the class would stop what they were doing and look on in amazement.

“When they finished, each team of architects was eager to share what they had learned. The best part of all of this was that they had fun using science!" said Susan Youngblood, coordinator of the event and one of many IBM volunteers that day who demonstrated that science not only can be fun, but can lead to exciting and rewarding careers.

See more photos.