Samantha Saville
The Paw Print
Science Saturday is a program for children throughout the Valley that has been run for almost two years.
Dr. Randy Emmons has been the fearless leader of this program since the community partnership was finished in September 2009. This program is paid for mainly by grants and with the amazing support of Adams State College. One in every 15,000 people in the United States has heard Dr. Emmons talk on a science subject.
Now Science Saturday is threatened to be canceled. Dr. Emmons commented about the program saying, “what I really like about Science Saturday is the enthusiasm of both the parents and children as they work together on science. Education isn’t just the school’s responsibility, it’s the parents.” Dr. Emmons knows the importance of this program and getting the next generation interested in science. The important thing about getting people interested is that they come back a second time.
Science Saturday has several helpers that come out every time besides the parents. The parents are a huge part of this program. It is amazing to see them learning right along with their kids.
Zac Smith is Dr. Emmons work study this year and Science Saturday has become a large part of his life. He commented on what Science Saturday means to him: “I love it because science is so important. I love seeing the kids enjoy learning science. It’s just hard because we don’t have that room anymore and when they lose their attention span they can’t do other science things because that room was full of science.”
The community partnership building was a room full of science things for the kids to experiment with. This was a great way for the kids to always be learning science even when they couldn’t pay attention to the lessons at hand. Liz Brownlow the president of Adams Atoms Chemistry Club and an active participant in Science Saturday says, “Adams State is very lucky to have Dr. Emmons, a professor who is willing to come in on a Saturday to get younger students interested in science.”
This past week in Science Saturday the topic was black ball radiation and there were record numbers of children there. The children got to look at different gases with a high voltage running through them. The kids would then look at the lights through a spectrometer and try to figure out what gas they were looking at by comparing it to sample spectra. The kids also got a great demonstration from Dr. Miller in the chemistry department. She lit several different chemicals on fire and talked to the kids about excited electrons giving off different colors as they fall. All kids love fire and this demonstration was understandably exciting for this group of kids.
This program really does change people’s lives. It will resume after spring break on March 26 at 9 a.m. at the planetarium on campus. This is an amazing program and everyone interested should check it out.
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