Members of La Cañada High School’s Science National Honors Society are serving as mentors at a summer camp this week, teaching 4th-, 5th- and 6th-graders through activities such as slime-making, tower-building and aluminum-foil boat racing for 1½ hours each afternoon.
LCHS students began planning the camp about three weeks ago, brainstorming a “whiteboard full of ideas,” said society member Jon Potter, a senior. The mentors were excited about working with youngsters because they had all been inspired by outreach programs in elementary school and wanted to provide that same spark for the younger students.
Thirty campers lined the lunch tables at La Cañada Elementary School on Monday with cups filled with sugar water and a string to dip in the mixture as the high school students explained non-Newtonian fluids, those that don’t follow Newton’s law of viscosity. Once they were finished explaining the science of the project, the kids dipped their strings in the colorful sugar water, which would turn into rock candy in a few days.
“It is going to taste good because it’s sugary,” camper Corinne Yu said, giggling with her friends. Yu and the other campers look forward to enjoying their sweet science project in a few days.
Jim Cartnal, the La Cañada school district’s executive director of pupil and personnel programs and services, is the faculty adviser for the new camp.
On the first day, he reported that it was off to a great start. The new program is made possible by local donations and modest contributions from the district, he said.
LCHS Students Seek to Inspire at Science Camp
