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Trend Midweek (Langhorne) – July 16, 2003
Having a Scientific Summer
Bucks County Kids Participate in GlaxoSmithKline’s
Science in the Summer Program
By Sheri Elfman, Bucks County Editor
Does your child like to conduct experiments that involve household appliances and the family pet? You can put their scientific curiosity to more positive use by checking out the program Science in the Summer.
Funded by GlaxoSmithKline, a leading pharmaceutical and health-care company, the free program runs for a week at local libraries. Two groups of 15 students—composed of second- and third-graders, and fourth- through six-graders—conduct experiments led by certified teachers and high school student volunteers.
The course consists of four 45-minute sessions, and each county that hosts the science program has a different theme. Chester County is focusing on “Physical Science/Electricity”; Delaware County is doing “Bioscience: Learn About Plants”; Montgomery County’s theme is “Chemistry,” while “Paleontology” is the theme in Philadelphia.
In Bucks County, this year’s theme is “Simple Machines.” The program is being offered at 12 Bucks libraries this summer.
“Simple Machines” shows children how different machines work. They will learn about six kinds of machines—lever, inclined plane, screw, wheel, pulley and gear—and engage in various experiments with them.
North Wales resident John Fisher is teaching the program this summer at the Free Library of Northamptom Township, Levittown Regional Library and Grundy Memorial Library in Bristol. It’s his 10th year with the program. Fisher retired after 32 years of teaching in the North Penn School District.
Fisher loves the Science in the Summer program, and you can tell just by watching him interact with the children.
“When people get this job, they don’t give it up,” he said.
His family also is a fan of Science in the Summer. His son, Stephen, who has assisted him through the years, is teaching the program at Huntingdon Valley Library for the first time.
“It’s really fun,” Stephen said.
At the library in Northampton, John Fisher was aided by three assistants: Jessie Meckler, who enters Council Rock High School in the fall; Amanda Howland, a 10th grader at Villa Joseph Marie High School in Holland; and Katie Pawlikowski, a 10th grader at Council Rock High School.
Meckler heard about the program when she asked the library about volunteer opportunities. A fan of science, Meckler is having fun helping out with the program.
Volunteer Howland started out as a student of Fisher’s in the Science in the Summer program. “Her whole family is involved,” Fisher said. “It’s a tradition. Her little sister is in it now.”
On a recent Tuesday, the children at Northampton Township Library learned about Sir Isaac Newton, incline planes, wedges and screws.
Every day students do homework, which involves fun activities like crossword puzzles, and they receive candy as a reward the next day. The atmosphere is laid back and the activities keep the children’s attention and energy at a brisk pace.
The free program fills up quickly every summer, and it proves that children still have a thirst for knowledge—even over summer vacation.
Reprinted courtesy of the Trend
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