National Youth Science Day great learning experience for 4-H’ers

Friday, October 17, 2014

If you looked toward the sky north of Stillwater recently and saw paper rockets being launched, your eyes were not playing tricks on you.

This is simply what happens when you combine enthusiastic 4-H’ers, paper, PVC pipe and plastic 2-liter bottles.

About 30 Payne County 4-H’ers gathered recently to take part in the National Youth Science Day. The Oklahoma 4-H Youth Development Program partnered with Oklahoma State University’s College of Education and the NASA Education Projects Office, and the results were out of this world. This year’s NYSD theme was Rockets to the Rescue!

Jeff Sallee, Oklahoma 4-H science and technology state specialist, said STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is the wave of the future, and the Oklahoma 4-H Program continues to offer opportunities to club members to strengthen their skills in these areas.

“This is a fun and exciting way to introduce youth to STEM-related projects. The 2014 NYSD experiment explores the field of aerospace engineering, and this year, youth are being asked to design and build an aerodynamic food transportation device that can deliver a payload of nutritious food to disaster victims,” Sallee said. “While the club members were taking part, they were learning about engineering concepts and developing math skills, all while having fun. This is our seventh year to participate in NYSD and we always have kids who come back to participate for several years.”

Kevin Allen, state 4-H program director, said the key is showing kids science can be fun and providing them with hands-on opportunities to learn.

“Through projects such as NYSD, we want kids to see science doesn’t just happen in a lab, and the best way to teach them is the way we approach all 4-H projects – learning by doing,” Allen said. “We help them realize they do science and math and engineering every day without even realizing it.”

Sallee said this fun project is available in all 77 counties and a grant through NASA Summer of Innovation paid for 150 NYSD kits that have been distributed throughout the state.

Steve Marks, professor in the aviation and space program in the college of education at OSU, is excited to be part of this project.

“These kinds of activities are important and we try to support the science, technology, engineering and math part of what students are learning in the classroom,” Marks said. “This helps reinforce to students they will have to draw on a lot of different skills and tools in their future careers.”

Ten-year-old Emma Warne, a member of the Heritage 4-H Club, said her favorite part about NYSD was building the rocket.

“I really like putting things together,” Warne said. “When we launched them I was sure my rocket was going to go straight up. I wasn’t very good at predicting where it would go. My hypothesis wasn’t good. But I had a lot of fun.”

Josiah Baird, a member of the Heritage 4-H Club, participated in NYSD for the first time this year.

“I really had fun shooting off the rocket and learning about how energy launches the rocket,” Baird said. “I hope to come back next year.”

Sallee said projects such as this not only teach youth about STEM, but also it provides an opportunity to make changes during the process.

“Science can’t be learned just in a text book. These hands-on activities give them a chance to try something, and if it doesn’t work the first time, they adjust their plan and try again,” he said. “During this activity they learned their rocket would fly differently if they changed the cone or the wings. It’s all about learning by doing.”