COSTA MESA : Yo-Yo Professional Entrances Students

When a yo-yo professional demonstrated his craft to a large group of grade school students last week, he was preaching to the converted.

“I’d say about 80% of the boys have them,” said teacher Paul Hart, after his class watched Daniel Volk perform more than 40 yo-yo tricks--sometimes whirling two yo-yos at the same time. Volk was the yo-yo champion of Cleveland when he was 13 and is now a professional yo-yo entertainer.

He appeared Friday at the Launch Pad, a science toy and gift store in the Crystal Court shopping mall, which also has many hands-on science demonstrations.

About 90 students from Rancho Santa Margarita and Santa Ana came to watch Volk’s show and later to try out the science demonstrations.

Hart said he’s not sure where the recent yo-yo craze came from, but it’s sweeping through his sixth-grade class at Cielo Vista Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Before riding the bus to the performance, Hart said, he had to strip his students of their yo-yos, which he said they use all the time at lunch breaks and after school.

“I encourage them not to use the yo-yos in class because they start swinging them around,” Hart said.

But the teacher said he keeps a spare yo-yo handy, in case an unfortunate child has forgotten the toy at home.

After Volk’s performance, half a dozen boys clustered around him, shouting out their own yo-yo feats.

“I was the first sixth-grader to bring one to class,” said Colby Benbow, 11, a student in Hart’s class.

“Our whole school is filled with yo-yos,” Danny Stoneberg, 12, said proudly.

His friend Jason Mooneyham, 11, said he even won a yo-yo contest at a local toy store--using tricks like “electric spaghetti-eater,” “shoe-shine” and “pop-the-clutch.”

Some students said they have been less successful with yo-yos.

“I have one, but it’s kind of hard,” said Colleen Nguyen, 10, a fifth-grader at Greenville Fundamental School in Santa Ana.

“It goes down to the ground, but it won’t come back up,” Colleen said.

The Launch Pad, with its 30 science exhibits, is considered a “preview” of a planned $37.5-million Discovery Science Center, expected to open in 1997 in Santa Ana.

Pam Shambra, director of marketing and development, said that about $15.5 million has been raised for the center. It will include hands-on exhibits, class space and the county’s first IMAX theater.

She said the Launch Pad shows potential donors what the science museum will be like. “This is so they can see the excitement in kids’ eyes,” she said.

After the yo-yo show, young students spun bicycle wheels to learn about rotational forces and threw balls to see them timed by radar.

“It’s educational and fun at the same time,” said Colleen, who has visited more than once.