As fireflies illuminated Pollock Road, a different type of light attracted a crowd of onlookers. <\/p>\n
Hot flames shot out of a long tube, as songs played on a loudspeaker. Children splashed around in a tiny plastic pool of cornstarch and water. <\/p>\n
This is all part of AstroFest, a festival dedicated to everything related to astronomy and science. <\/p>\n
The main purpose is to get members of the public more interested in astronomy and to share our enthusiasm about it with them, said Jane Charlton, a professor teaching Astronomy and Astrophysics. <\/p>\n
Volunteers from the Astronomy department, students and faculty all gathered to run various booths and games for children, students and residents of State College to enjoy. <\/p>\n
Some activities outside Davey Laboratory included the Rubens Tube Dancing, launching of bottle rockets and astronomy-themed tie dye sessions. <\/p>\n
A table located at the entrance was covered in AstroFest t-shirts and posters that volunteers were selling, with all of the proceeds going toward the Undergraduate Astronomy Club. <\/p>\n
Other booths contained various experiments and activities. <\/p>\n
Henry Gebhardt, a volunteer at one of the booths, explained that a Rubens Tube with holes poked in it, would be ignited with flames when propane flowed through it. <\/p>\n
The flames will get larger if the pressure of the propane was higher, Gebhardt (graduateastro and astrophysics) said. <\/p>\n
To further demonstrate, he asked curious onlookers to request songs that the flames would then mimic as the song progressed. <\/p>\n
If you hit the right frequencies then you will get a resonance, Gebhardt said. The sound waves will travel through the tube and reflect it on the other side. <\/p>\n
To motivate children to continue learning about astronomy at each booth, volunteers passed out pamphlets that booth leaders could stamp as each kid traveled through. <\/p>\n
A prize table located in the front of the lobby had an assortment of scattered, colorful prizes that children could choose from if they collected enough stamps. <\/p>\n
Kids under six years-old would need to collect five stamps, and kids over the age of six would need to collect eight stamps and watch a 30 minute presentation. <\/p>\n
Charlton said there have been multiple students who attended AstroFest as children, and are now majoring in astronomy at Penn State. <\/p>\n
Thats kind of exciting, she said. Anything that we can do to get [kids] interested now, is going to help getting them into these fields that are so important for our Country and the world. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Go here to see the original: <\/p>\n
Activities, science experiments light up the first night of AstroFest - The Daily Collegian Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As fireflies illuminated Pollock Road, a different type of light attracted a crowd of onlookers. Hot flames shot out of a long tube, as songs played on a loudspeaker. Children splashed around in a tiny plastic pool of cornstarch and water Continue reading