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Bubbles sizzled in a plastic bottle as vinegar reacted with baking soda. The gas produced from the reaction filled a red balloon attached to the bottle’s top as five fifth graders looked on in awe.
“I liked watching the balloon grow,” Meara Daly, one of the fifth graders, said.
She and her classmates showed off one of the many demonstrations that will be presented April 2 for Science & Engineering Night. This is the first time the high school is hosting the event in six years.
Science & Engineering Night, running from 5 to 7 p.m., invites parents and K-8 students to the high school to witness demonstrations of various scientific fields. The event aims to showcase the opportunities available to high school students and generate community interest in science.
Organizers hope to draw 300 to 500 people.
“It’ll be a great opportunity to connect K through 12,” said Lia Stelljes, the elementary science, technology and engineering coordinator, who is helping plan the event.
All of the high school students in charge of the demonstrations are part of the Science Olympiad team, a collection of students who compete in STEM competitions.
The demonstrations will include fingerprinting and forensics, medicine and anatomy, applied neuroscience, chemistry, biology and environmental science, physics and engineering and robotics. There will also be a showcase of equipment in the community technology center and a tour of the tech engineering classroom.
In the community technology center, students will present laser machine technology and music technology using devices bought with grants from the Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence, a nonprofit that raises funds for Winchester’s public schools.
There will also be a button-making station and computers where attendees can try out computer-aided design software that creates and modifies 2D and 3D models.
The event will also showcase the students’ accomplishments within their science courses and extracurriculars, including a paper on music’s influence on decision-making, which was published in April 2024 in the Journal for Emerging Investigators, which publishes original research done by high schoolers and middle schoolers.
The event was planned by a small group of faculty across the high school, middle school and elementary schools. They teamed up with students for suggestions on potential additions to the night.
One suggestion came from Summer Kim, a sophomore, who suggested that there be a preview of one of the demonstrations they’d be doing with fifth graders. Alice Chen, a junior, created the T-shirts that students and faculty will wear on the night of the event.
The two students acted as the instructors.
The fifth graders were shown how gas is created through the combination of baking soda and vinegar. After the experiment, they agreed their favorite part was pouring the baking soda into the balloon and watching it expand.
Fifth graders said they enjoyed the experiment and would be attending the Science & Engineering Night.
“I like it,” said Hannah McGurry, one of the fifth graders. “It’s fun.”
Tavishi Chattopadhyay is a journalism student at Boston University. This story is part of a partnership between Winchester News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
