Science Night features projects by BEA, Penn State students

For the eighth year, the Bald Eagle Area School District has teamed up with Penn State to host the Exploration-U Community Science Night. The event, through the Eberly College of Science, allows the community to learn more about STEM subject by showcasing a variety of presentations and projects on science, technology, engineering and math.

This year, nearly 40 exhibits were on hand, including 13 by BEA students. It included dry ice experiments, volcano-erupting activities, slime-making, learning about different energy types, rocks and fossils, a planetarium and more.

To coincide with National FFA Week, staff and students from BEA’s agriculture program had its own area to promote their work, which included a meat cook-off in the ag classroom that was sponsored by the PA Beef Council. Products were available for tasting a judging. They also had landscapes on display and held an artificial floral-arrangement competition.

Students from Max Besong’s physics class held a series of presentations in the hallway near the auditorium. If you never heard of a brachistochrone ramp, two students were on hand to explain just what it is – a curve that proves the path of least time between two points.

“The farther it drops, the more speed it picks up,” student Luke Wilson said. “It’s the fastest curve possible to get (an object) from point A to point B.”