Late last month, in the gymnasium of the Jasper Elementary School, a young student rode a hovercraft.
The contraption was made of a thin disc the size of a transport truck tire, with a leaf blower attached to provide lift. A student wearing a bicycle helmet sat cross-legged clutching fabric handles while Bernadette Blakey sent him skimming down the gymnasium floor with a nudge of her foot.
The whole demonstration was part of Science in Motion, which was at JES from March 24-26 offering hands-on science programs to the students.
Science in Motion is an outreach program from the TELUS World of Science in Edmonton. Each year outreach coordinators like Blakey travel the province, bringing a suite of science activities to Alberta schools.
At the assembly March 26, Blakey explained that the program has about 30 different activities that schools can choose from, “as well as things like this which are more about getting kids excited about science.”
At JES those programs ranged from a Simple Machines activity where students learned about basic machines like levers and built their own machines from Lego kits, to boat-building workshops and “Who Haz What” chemistry classes.
During the assembly Blakey also taught the students about friction and mass (with the help of a giant slingshot), the expansion of gasses (with a balloon and airtight chamber) and Newton’s first law of motion with a bucket full of beads.
According to JES teacher John Auger, Science in Motion was brought to the school courtesy of the Parent Council of Jasper Elementary School.
Trevor Nichols
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