ESK Celebrates Mad Scientist Day Featured on WVLT

 It was all about science on Friday at the Episcopal School of Knoxville. After months of work, students showed off their science projects to the whole school.

Liquid sand, robotic cars and shrinking cans were just a few of the science projects the students have been working on.

“We have some that have created engineering projects, and we have others who are portraying a scientist of some sort. And they are giving us all the important information about why science is important to life,” said teacher Cayla Lockhart.

In one project, students heated up a can and dropped it in ice water to show how the difference in air temperature can create a vacuum.

“Very creative students, and our hope is that we instill a love of science and that they have fun while they’re creating something that they get to be proud of,” said Lockhart.

“In ours, we have a balloon that’s too big to fit in the jar. And so we put fire in the jar and we’d light some paper on fire,” said student Porter Kennedy. “And since the fire uses the oxygen, it pulls the balloon into the jar, even though the balloon seems too big to fit.”

These older kids showed off their experiments to the younger kids at the school.

“You do the experiments, the younger kids are always so excited to look at you because they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing.’ It’s like magic. So I’m on the team with a balloon getting sucked into a jar as Porter described. And they were like mystified by how the balloon got sucked into the jar,” said student Alexander Bowden.

They called it “Mad Scientist Day” where everyone became a scientist, and teachers hoped this inspires them to want to know more about science as they move through school.

“Our hope for them is that they continue to love science and grow that love of science. So by the time they get to middle school, high school, college, maybe they’re the ones to take on the next new big creation for the world,” said Lockhart.