Fun with Science: Brilliant Black Scientists

It was hard to choose but in honor of Black History Month, we highlighted the following four accomplished African American scientists:

Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician

· We experimented with a foam rocket to learn how trajectory changes at different angles

James Andrew Harris, co-discoverer of elements Rutherfordium and Dubnium

· We used marbles and a diagram of an atom to learn how colliding atoms, in nuclear fusion reactions, can be used to discover new elements.

Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist and inventor of the Laserphaco. She was a truly a trailblazer for women and African Americans in the field of ophthalmology!

· Lion Vasia came up with a large-scale "cataract" surgery model for the kids to play with. We had two stations with clear plastic bowls that represented the globe’s external surface (sclera) and a jell-o “cataract” in the center. The children had to break the “cataract” with their glow-in-the dark “laser” probe and “vacuumed” out the destructed lens with their basters.

Emmett W Chapelle, biochemist who discovered the science behind bioluminescence

· We did an experiment to see bioluminescence when ostracods were crushed

· Art project using a pen light and long camera shutter speed. The children adored this!

Join us at the local Paine Branch Library on Saturday March 21, 2020 at 11AM to learn about music and sound!