Youngsters participate in science day

Dr. David Kuehn, PSU Physics Department, readies Matt Maynard's (Webb City High School) tower for testing on the seismic shaker at the annual science day at Pittsburg State University on Thursday. (Submitted Photo)

Nearly 500 area high school students from Kansas and Missouri tested their science skills at Pittsburg State University's annual Science Day on Thursday, April 21.

In addition to written and oral tests, the students competed a variety of hands-on activities designed to be fun while also demonstrating the students' knowledge in physics, natural science, chemistry and biology.

In the mouse trap car competition, for example, students were tasked with constructing and racing a car with simple materials and powered only by a small mouse trap. In the Seismic Shakers competition, students built popsicle-stick towers that were subjected to a simulated earthquake. Students in the Paper Tower competition raced to see who could build the tallest free-standing tower out of a single sheet of photocopier paper.

Their mouse trap car complete. Jeremy Lewis, (left) and Blake Gooch, Hume High School, design their structure for the Paper Tower competition. (Submitted Photo)

Other Science Day events included written and oral competition in areas such as botany, ecology, wildlife identification, zoology, genetics and anatomy and physiology.

Organizers in the departments of biology, chemistry and physics say the annual event is an opportunity for high school students to showcase their science knowledge, have fun and become better acquainted with the Pittsburg State campus.