Livermore Lab fascinates schoolkids

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 25, 2006 | by Rebecca F. Johnson, STAFF WRITER

LIVERMORE -- Moments after the "Discovery" raced down a ramp and hit a wall, a crowd at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cheered and exclaimed disbelief that the egg inside didn't crack.

The contraption, crafted from Legos, balloons, bubble wrap and other materials by Walnut Grove Elementary School pupils Laura Klein and Kylie Copenhagen, proved sturdy enough to withstand the famous "egg drop" and earned one of the fastest times of the day.

"We were a little surprised," said Klein, 11, though the fifth- graders from Pleasanton had tested the invention on a stairway banister and on the school playground slide.

The egg drop was just one of many hands-on activities about 500 students from around the East Bay participated in Friday as part of the lab's annual Engineering Day, an event aimed at encouraging the pursuit of engineering jobs and highlighting the use of science in everyday products.

"We're engineers, and we want to create many other little engineers," said Claudia Hertzog, co-chairwoman of the event and an electrical engineer. "If we can just inspire a handful of kids who wouldn't otherwise think of a career in engineering, that's our goal."

The annual event is co-sponsored by the International Society for Optical Engineering and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The students vied for prizes in four contests, including the egg experiment, a boat race, toothpick and marshmallow bridge building, and parachute creation. Some students created their engineering projects in advance of the field trip.

Several boats tended to spin around in circles or fail to move forward, causing some students to furiously fashion attachments to their creations. The delicate toothpick bridges, in some cases, held up for more than five minutes as weight was added periodically.

And golf balls spilled out of many parachutes, which the students made from straws, construction paper, cups and yarn. But after her parachute was dropped from a pulley 4 feet high, 10-year-old Grace Cho of Independent Elementary School in Castro Valley emerged victorious in the quest to keep the ball in place.

The students also could check out a robot arm, the inside of a computer, a laser microphone, rockets and other machines.

But perhaps one of the biggest draws allowed the students to preserve something for themselves, literally of themselves. After swabbing their cheeks, the students extracted their DNA and placed it into a clear necklace.

"The kids are asking 'is this how you get DNA out to do, say, a crime scene,'" said Stan Hitomi, who directs the Edward Teller Education Center at the lab.

And of course, the answer was "yes."

Rebecca Johnson can be reached at (925) 416-4882 or rjohnson@angnewspapers.com.