The tower was deceptively sturdy, its raw spaghetti beams and mini marshmallow joints proving more effective than they looked.
After completing the third level, the father-son building team delicately perched a bright-orange ping-pong ball at the apex. Time after time it fell off and bounced away prompting them to try again. After a final realignment of the topping marshmallow, the ball stayed put for more than a minute — victory!
One of eight activities at the Kingsley Middle School's inaugural Family Science Night, the tower construction event captivated Nate Carson and his dad, Chris.
"It's great, he's got a scientific mind, likes to understand how things work,” said Chris Carson of his sixth grade son.
Sponsored by the 21st Century Community Learning Center, the evening — which also included dinner — drew 63 students in grades four through eight plus their parents. Besides the tower building, activities included making slimy polymers, chemistry experiments, building structures using gum drops and toothpicks, balloon rockets, a friction experiment on an incline plane and crazy catapults.
Attendees could not help learn basic science principles with the hands-on activities, where trial and error plus instant feedback demonstrated the lessons behind the fun.
"The bigger balloon makes it go farther because of more air pressure,” said Donavan Langworthy, a fourth grade student of his favorite station: balloon rockets.
Students rotated among stations every 20 minutes with a goal of visiting five of them during the evening. Younger siblings had their own room for fun, science-related activities, watched over by a teacher volunteer.
As the small gym, cafeteria and large gym rang with laughter and learning well after school hours, organizers deemed the Family Science Night a success.
"It's so much fun to do these, just to see the kids' faces — it's hilarious!” said Faith Sousa, a program assistant with the 21st Century Community Learning Center, which is in the fifth year of a five-year grant. "They get into it, their parents get into it and they all seemed like they had a good time.”
The goal was to make science accessible for students in a setting enjoyable for both middle school students and their parents. The response even before the event, when so many expressed interest the program was expanded from six activities to eight, indicates the Family Science taps a vein of interest.
"A lot of kids are afraid of science and I wanted them to learn that it can be fun and it can be fun with your parents,” said Sousa, who helped conduct Family Science Nights while a student at Michigan Tech. "When they get to [middle school] age, it can be hard to find things to do together.”
"The school staff were so excited,” she added of the curriculum-based activities that teachers helped create and promote.
Volunteer instructors during Family Science Night included two college professors, two civil engineers, teachers from the school and Community Learning Center staff.
Brian Sousa, a civil engineer with Wade-Trim, Inc. was in charge of tower building. As students and their parents tried out different structures and modified designs, he enjoyed watching the creative sparks fly.
"Some of the ideas that kids come up with are so cool — all of them are different,” he said, dubbing the kids: "Engineers of the future!”
Attending an activity that caught the interest of girls was important to mom Misty Cudney, whose daughter, Evelyn Ferguson, fifth grade, ended the evening at the slimy polymers table.
"I think it's a great way especially to get girls included in science because it's thought of as more of a boy thing,” said Cudney, adding of her daughter: "She has experimental books at home and likes to do things — likes to make messes.”