SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Energy Fair Sparks Lots of Learning

Students at Harold Ambuehl Elementary School got a real charge Friday out of a first-ever Energy Fair in which principles of electricity and magnetism came to life out of homemade projects.

About 70 Ambuehl fifth-graders created projects for the Energy Fair, ranging from a “Gerbil-Electric Generator” to a hand-made galvanometer, an instrument for detecting or measuring small electrical currents by the movements of a magnetic needle.

Throughout the morning, the students, most working in pairs, stood by their projects, doing demonstrations and answering questions from students in fourth and sixth grades. In recent weeks, teachers Judy Harrison and Marilyn Haehn have been working with the students on the principles of electricity and magnetism, part of the regular fifth-grade science curriculum.

“We’ve had science fairs before, but this is a first,” Harrison said. “It’s not a contest, it’s a way of sharing knowledge.”

Students Danielle Lynn and Ashley Granger, both aspiring doctors, had a lot more than knowledge to share. Using batteries, wire, a small engine from a toy race car and the eraser from the top of a pencil, they made an electric “easy eraser” they say works better than most.

They also devised their own mini “pocket light” using a six-volt battery, wire, a faucet washer, clay and a paper clip.

“It’s fun to do and it’s really easy,” Ashley said. “We like to go out a lot and find things. I like to work with wires.”

A key element of the Energy Fair was that students demonstrated their knowledge and explained it to their peers over and over again, Principal Kathy Oshima George said. “Instead of studying something in a book and assessing the children’s knowledge with a multiple-choice test, the children are asked to develop a (project) that demonstrates their knowledge,” she said.

For 10-year-old Graham McCreary, an old eyeglasses case, a piece of red wool fabric and some bits of plastic foam were all he needed to demonstrate the properties of static electricity.

“This has helped me a lot,” McCreary said. “You just need to focus on what you’re doing and not get sidetracked.”

On one side of the school’s large multipurpose room, Chrysintia Winkfield used a battery, some wire, a small light bulb, and scraps of newspaper, glass and metal to create a conductor.

“Anything that is metal is a conductor,” she explained to a group of students gathered around her desk, pressing wire to a key to ignite a battery-charged light bulb. “Anything that isn’t metal is an insulator.”

Parent volunteers John and Linda Birkitt also got involved in the fair, helping their daughter, Danielle, and other students keep the energy moving through the projects. John Birkitt, an engineer consultant, is known to many of the students as “Mr. Wizard.”

“Most of the teachers, especially at the elementary level, don’t have a background in physics,” he said. “Since I do, I can come down and help.”

He said that since their oldest child started at the local public schools almost 20 years ago, he has been helping children with science and physics. He visits Ambuehl science classes about twice a week.

“All they need to do is understand the principles. It doesn’t need to be expensive,” he said. “This is how they can learn by doing it themselves. Actually, it’s more fun for me than you can imagine.”