February 17, 2016
The 2016 TDS Science Expo was a stunning success.
From Doug Norry, Head of School:
During the first hour, students took turns standing by their projects and visiting those created by their peers. As I made my way around the gym, I learned: that flat Legos built in the shape of a pyramid are structurally sound; what happens when certain ingredients are left out of a cake recipe; that reaction time varies by gender; and that I need to cut down on my orange juice consumption. I also saw some excellent demonstrations, including: an exploding watermelon, crushed by the weight of 430 rubber bands; a homemade lava lamp; bouncing eggs; and yeast-powered exploding toothpaste.
During the second hour, students and parents migrated to the main building, where students from Duke University led a wide variety of engaging, hands-on activities. Our students used liquid nitrogen to make their own dippin’ dots, extracted DNA from strawberries, and investigated the properties of magnets by bending streams of water. In the Commons, some of our 5th and 8th graders helped their younger peers to program our EV3 robots.
It was wonderful to see so many of you supporting your children, and all of their peers, last night. In particular, I’d like to thank Dan Forringer, Karen Fisher, Erin Nelson, Morgan Schweller, and Steve Butera for their hours of planning, organizing, and working with our young scientists. Our students chose a topic of personal interest, performed research, designed and carried out experiments, and displayed and explained their results. February is Career Month at TDS, and many of our students are well on their way to prolific careers in the sciences.
