The Science National Honor Society held their second annual parent’s night out event, known as Science pHun Night, Nov. 15.
“pH” was incorporated into the name to tie in a more scientific element.
Running from 6:00 to 8:30, parents were allowed to drop off their children, grades kindergarten through fifth, at the high school and enjoy a night to themselves.
Despite this only being the second year the event was held, 106 children were registered and dropped off for the night.
“This is only our second year holding the event, and there were around 20 more kids signed up,” science teacher Sara Chapman said. “We did increase in numbers, which is really great to see.”
Although there were many reasons for hosting such an event, the primary reason was to teach and expose young kids to different fields of science.
“I believe it’s important for children to get exposed to science because it’s sometimes not taught so much at a younger age,” Mrs. Chapman said. “So any opportunity we can get to expose them to it at an earlier age is great.”
Throughout the night, children were taken to five different rooms dedicated to biology, chemistry, earth science, physics and snacks.
Each room contained planned-out activities that not only reflected the specific field of science, but also grabbed the young kids’ attention.
“As coordinators and volunteers, we had to keep in mind the wide range of the kid’s ages to find activities they would all enjoy,” senior and SNHS member Julia Harriss said.
Aside from holding the children’s attention, some volunteers said their main priority when coming up with activities was forming a cohesive balance between information and fun.
“I found it important to pick activities that were not only extremely informative, but also fun for the children to complete,” said Austin Norcio, senior and SNHS coordinating secretary.
The children participated in many different interactive, science-related activities during the two hours, including leaf tracing, cookie “mining,” bone relay racing, building robotics, making magnetic books and more.
These activities were not only fun and hands-on for the children, but they also exposed them to important life skills.
“I believe this event greatly benefited the children because they not only had the opportunity to learn about science, but they were also given a fun way to incorporate it into real life,” Norcio said.
Much like Norcio, Harriss thinks this event taught the kids about important life tools, such as how to use good problem solving skills.
Although the main purpose of the event was to immerse children in science at an early age, another driving factor was fundraising.
Every child’s ticket, each costing 20 dollars, contributed to the honor society.
“The purpose was overall just to do community outreach related to science and raise money for our senior scholarship,” Mrs. Chapman said.
Although this was only the second time being held, Science pHun Night experienced a huge turnout and gave SNHS members the opportunity to teach children about science.
“Youth is the main foundation for shaping the mind,” Norcio said. “Learning science at a young age helps the children understand and learn science better in the future.”