On Thursday, March 9, 2023, the Science National Honor Society conducted an outreach event at Kingston Elementary School to show kids the importance of (and the fun behind) learning science at school.

“I absolutely love this event, as it allows for the members to have the opportunity to show the elementary students the multiple possibilities of science courses East has,” said Yarden Yanushkevich (‘23), Vice President of Science National Honor Society.

Four SNHS members were assigned to a class at the school, either 4th or 5th grade, throughout the day. Every class’s events lasted 45-50 minutes, allowing the groups of elementary school students to complete four 10-15 minute experiments, each led by one of the members volunteering in the classroom.

Out of the four experiments, the elementary schoolers completed three of them. The first 15-minute experiment was called “Rube Goldberg” and involved a Science National Honor Society member telling students to take a large set of dominoes and complete a task with them, such as producing the most complex domino arrangement they could think of without knocking it over. After this, the kids participated in a Tower Contest, where each group competed to build the highest tower made out of paper and tape. The third experiment challenged students to construct a bridge between two tables out of toothpicks and gummy bears and stabilize it well enough to balance a pencil on top.

Finally, the fourth event was the famous “Elephant Toothpaste” experiment, where students watched an SNHS member combine a yeast mixture with dish soap and hydrogen peroxide to produce an explosion! Undoubtedly, this excited the kids the most – all of Kingston could hear their “Ooh”s and “Ah”s!

For years, the Science National Honor Society has conducted outreach programs. Most recently, on Friday, February 3, 2023, several SNHS members attended Sharp Elementary School’s Sizzlin’ Science Day to lead four other experiments with students. Needless to say, this day was a success as well!

When asked about the future, Yanushkevich said that because “both the members and the elementary students really enjoyed this event,” SNHS will “definitely” continue holding outreach days to promote science education to the next generation living in our Cherry Hill community!