Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, January 21, 2009

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Folks from the Arboretum helped youngsters use a microscope to scan compost for such critters as pill bugs and ground beetles.

Fourth-graders from Breckinridge, Harrison and Millcreek elementary schools got an eyeful – and an earful – of science at the second annual Energy Fair hosted by the University of Kentucky. 

Professor Jack Selegue delighted the students with explosive demonstrations of how to turn chemical energy into light, heat and sound. Students responded with “oohs and ahs” as he popped hydrogen- and helium-filled balloons with a torch and ran electrical current through a dill pickle. 

“I’m a big believer in science education for kids,” said Selegue, a faculty associate at UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research, which sponsors the Energy Fair. “They see the fun side. It’s a lot different than reading it in the textbook – to see somebody light up a big crucible that bursts into flames.” 

More than 200 kids rotated through the various booths and hands-on activities set up Wednesday in the UK Student Center’s grand ballroom. A group from Breckinridge was first through the door.  

Nine-year-old Stephanie Bamfo was particularly impressed by the chemistry professor. “I saw how he made energy with a pickle and thought that was very cool,” she said. 

Across the ballroom, young James Manning was fascinated with the intricacies of an electronics board. “We got to take wires and connect them to a battery, and it made the light bulb work,” he said. 

Among the dozen or so exhibitors were Bluegrass PRIDE, which used a rubber ducky and plastic sailboats to show the power of wind blowing across water; and the Bluegrass Community and Technical College with tornado tubes – plastic soda bottles that illustrate the tension between gravity and water pressure. Other exhibitors offered up creepy crawlies living in compost, lessons on coal and the environment, and a hybrid plug-in car parked just outside. 

“You hear a lot about energy but may not understand how it affects your life,” said Rodney Andrews, director of the Center for Applied Energy Research. Enrichment opportunities like the Energy Fair can help youngsters put the pieces together, he explained. “This age is very enthusiastic.” 

The idea for the Energy Fair grew out of the organization’s ongoing partnership with Russell Cave Elementary, which is about five minutes away from the energy lab on Iron Works Pike. UK scientists at the center regularly lead demonstrations at the school, but hoped a fair would help them reach even more students. Last January, students from Johnson, Linlee, Mary Todd and Russell Cave elementaries attended the first event. 

Lori Bowen, a science specialist with Fayette County Public Schools, selected the schools to participate based on which students might most benefit from additional exposure to science and to the world outside their immediate community. 

“The kids are just wowed. It’s so important for them to have beyond-the-classroom experience,” Bowen said. “My whole goal is for them to see the application of real science at work.” 

One of the highlights for this year’s kids was a solar-powered car built by UK students. Nick Such, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, was among several college students who talked with the kids about the car’s design, construction and potential. 

“Part of the reason we’re here today is that way back in elementary school, somebody showed us something cool,” Such said.