Science Expo Lures Students to See Sights

They came by the busload to watch chemical explosions, study lasers, learn the latest in data encryption and, generally, talk science.

More than 300 area high school and college students descended on Moorpark College on Wednesday for the school’s third annual science expo, an event designed to encourage students to think about careers in different scientific fields.

“It’s to get them interested in science, wherever they go with it, whatever they do,” said Dena Richardson, president of the college’s Math, Engineering and Science Assn. The student group organized the expo with help from the faculty.

Visitors listened to speakers from the highest ranks of science, pros from places like Amgen and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They talked with representatives of 10 colleges and universities touting each school’s science program. They watched lasers draw Etch-a-Sketch patterns in a darkened gymnasium, to the thundering strains of the latest Depeche Mode single.

Some clustered around biology professor Eric Shargo, who gave them a guided tour of a human cadaver.

“Now that’s a healthy kidney,” Shargo said, lifting the organ into view. Students leaned closer in the formaldehyde-scented air.

“It wasn’t that bad, really,” Benedict Tanjoco said after leaving the room.

“Just the smell,” classmate William French IV said.

Seniors at Hueneme High School, Tanjoco and French made the rounds of the expo with three fellow physics classmates, checking out an explosion demonstration and some of the displays. Their teacher, John Wagner, also arranged a private demonstration of the school’s ruby laser, watching as the beam of light burned through a penny.

The expo, Wagner said, gave his students a chance to see in action scientific equipment that individual high schools can’t afford.

“When you look at the amount of equipment, the sophistication and dollar value of the equipment, it’s incomparable,” he said.

The expo also gave Wagner a chance to talk representatives from Southern California Edison into visiting his school later in the year to perform a demonstration on magnetism.

“It was a real productive day,” he said.

The expo was scheduled to continue into the night, with a lecture on the Galileo space probe, a star-gazing session and a visit to the college observatory.