Sneaking in science lessons at the Orange County Fair

Marisa O’Neil

Genessee Banks, 11, stood in the Youth Building at the Orange County

Fair, carefully counting pennies into a boat she’d made out of

aluminum foil.

The boat and its cargo of pennies bobbed in a water-filled pan,

part of a buoyancy exercise at the Science Education Center of

California booth. Genessee and her sister, 10-year-old Alannah Banks,

dropped coins into their boats until they sank.

“I got 75,” Genessee boasted. “How many did you get?”

Alannah came up short with 57.

The center, a mobile science classroom, was stationed inside the

Youth Building on Tuesday morning with a small crowd of children

around it. Outside, the sun blazed and children jostled for spots on

fair rides, but at the booth, they learned about matter, density and

natural science.

Music blared in the building as a dance school put on a recital

for crowds of family members on its stage. Center curator Dan Krawitz

competed with the music by pressing a bar of solid silver onto a

block of dry ice.

White gas billowed up and the ice made a low-pitch screech as it

reacted with the metal.

“As the solid changes to a gas, it expands by a factor of 100,” he

told onlookers. “The sound is the gas escaping and vibrating the

bar.”

He passed the newly-frozen bar of silver around for the children

to feel.

“Ooh, it’s cold,” Genessee said, leaving her fingerprint on the

frost-covered brick.

The center, Krawitz said, travels to schools, fairs and other

events. It helps provide children a connection with the natural world

with things like metals, minerals and fossils, he said.

During his presentation, he encourages students to think like

scientists and make predictions.

“It’s different learning concepts here than in a school

environment,” he said.

For another experiment, Krawitz dropped a small chunk of dry ice

into a half-filled water bottle. Steam flowed out of it, and he

covered the opening with a purple balloon, which blew up as if by

magic.

That one, he said, is always a crowd-pleaser.

The Science Education Center will set up its booth in the Youth

Building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the two remaining Saturdays and

Sundays of the fair.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.