The Settler

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Kristen Salter Participants of Thursday's Math and Science Expo watch as Vol State student Josh Pike releases a raw bubble-wrapped egg from a box hanging several feet in the air.

On Thursday, the 7th-annual Math and Science Expo was hosted in the John B. Wallace Health Sciences Building at Volunteer State Community College.

Students from local schools attended the event, along with their parents.

"[The expo is a] series of hands-on science experiments geared for elementary and middle school students," said Dr. Tim Farris, associate professor of physics.

Among the experiments and projects at the expo were a digestive system, slime, liquid nitrogen, and a national flight school, said Farris.

Another display at the expo was a bio diesel van. The owner of the van is Daniel Kelley, assistant professor of English.

His van, Kelley said, runs on used cooking oil that he gets from restaurants who are throwing out their oil.

Kelley said his van gets about the same mileage as a standard gasoline engine, but the upside, he said, is that it is better for the environment.

Emily Hussey, a pre-vet student, was running an exhibit about pet health.

Hussey explained that the exhibit was to promote the importance of a veterinarian tech in a veterinarian's office.

The exhibit also showed a diagram of the insides of a dog and a cat.

Hussey said that the exhibit was to show children the importance of taking care of an animal, and protecting it from fleas, ticks, and other hazards to animal health.

Another exhibit that children seemed to be very excited about was the egg drop.Josh Pike explained that children wrapped a raw egg in bubble wrap and straws, and then taped it together.

Once they had wrapped their egg, the children took their eggs outside to a wooden device with strings and boxes.

The strings hung from a wooden beam, and the strings were adjusted by Pike to different heights.

Hanging from each string was a box.
The box was rigged to be opened by a remote control.

When the remote control opened the flaps of the box, the egg dropped down onto the concrete.

If the egg was sufficiently padded, it would not break, and it would move to the next highest box.

There were three heights from which the bubble wrap-protected eggs were dropped, and the third was the highest.

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