LAWRENCE: Students explain science

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   When he wants to, Mr. Fantastic — the leading superhero in the Fantastic Four comic books series — can bend and stretch himself into many shapes.
   But just how does Mr. Fantastic do that? And for that matter, how does the vibranium shield carried by Captain America — a superhero in the Avengers comic book series — manage to protect him?
   It’s not magic, silly. It’s science.
   For two nights last week, young children learned what’s behind the superheroes’ power and absorbed some science lessons to boot, thanks to students in Lawrence High School’s Academy of Science and Technology’s STEM Club.
   Children and their parents wandered from classroom to classroom at the high school, as STEM Club members portrayed some of the Marvel Comics series’ superheroes — from Captain America to the Invisible Woman, Thor and in spirit, if not in person, the Silver Surfer.
   Lawrence High School students in the STEM Club have put together a “science night” for the past couple of years, aiming to generate excitement about science among the children. This year, the theme was superheroes from blockbuster movies popular among the younger set.
   Using Mr. Fantastic as a jumping-off point, the high school students used gray-colored putty and a magnet to demonstrate the concept of bonding among atoms. The putty, which was placed on several tables, was actually full of miniscule amounts of lead filings.
   ”What is bonding,” a STEM Club member asked the children. When they couldn’t answer, he asked them to hold hands — to bond together — around the table. The same way, atoms in the lead filings in the putty bonded together and it stayed in one shape, he said.
   But when a magnet was introduced, it pulled the lead filings in different directions and the putty stretched until it reached its breaking point. The atoms reached a point where they no longer formed a bond, and that’s when the putty “broke.”
   In another classroom anchored by Captain America, the children learned about Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of physics — beginning with Newton’s third law of motion, which says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
   How do you show that? By bouncing a ball of Captain America’s special shield, which is made of vibranium. One student tossed a small ball at the shield, and it bounced off it. The ball exerted force on the shield, which in return put force on the ball.
   Using an electrostatic generator, Thor taught the children about electricity — the static kind, that is. Touching the machine, his hair began to stand on end. And when he reached out to touch another high school student, there was a small flash of static electricity between their fingers.
   And when the children completed their tour of superheroes and science, they were treated to a different kind of hero — a Lawrence Township police officer, a Trenton Fire Department firefighter, three New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers and a U.S. Marine Corps soldier.
   The children had a chance to try on a firefighter’s helmet and a military helmet, while the firefighter and the Army soldiers and Marines explained what they do all day. The police officer showed them how she takes fingerprints with special powder.