Middle School

Interactive booth with displays on human anatomy (take-apart torso), preserved animal specimens, quizzes on animals.

We will offer hands-on activities about Water pollution prevention and conservation. Watershed model, water conservation demonstration, and trash science!

The Escondido Police Department aims to expose students to the Crime Lab and Traffic Division and their dependence on math, physics, and scientific principles to complete investigations. The Crime Lab and Traffic Division will showcase the equipment utilized to gather data and conduct experiments used for investigations. Officers and laboratory technicians will explain how scientific principles are used daily to solve crimes and determine how traffic collisions occurred.

Project Cornerstone’s booth will educate children and parents about the importance of local construction aggregates (i.e., sand, gravel and crushed stone) used in building materials like concrete and asphalt products, and how it plays an integral role in their daily lives. Visitors to the booth will get a lesson on the science of concrete and will make their own concrete projects using sand, gravel, cement and water.

Activity side will be performing DNA extractions using wheat germ, information side will be providing handouts about Salk programs

Since 2009 Castle Park High students, under the guidance of Dr. Robert Pomeroy of UCSD, have learned to produce biodiesel from vegetable oil. Established students from our BASG group are now teaching our new members how to complete the process of biodiesel synthesis. In addition to the synthesis of biodiesel, students use a particle counter to determine how many particles are produced during the combustion of various fuels. These data indicate how “clean” the fuel burns and how particulate impacts our global climate.

We will showcase the research of the USD Biology Department in an interactive and fun way.

Our booth will feature our live, non-releasable raptors. These are all local birds of prey that can be found here in San Diego and will include several different species of hawks, falcons, and owls. Guest will be given the opportunities to meet these birds in a close, personal setting while learning about their importance in the San Diego ecosystem. We will teach guests about these wonderful animals natural history, biology, and importance of conservation.

Our booth, supported by the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation in Solar Fuels, is all about solar energy and renewable fuels. We will have physical demos of solar powered fuel cells and silicon solar panels that attendees can interact with and ask questions of scientists doing research on the topics. Most importantly though, our booth will be a station where kids (and adults!) can make their own dye-sensitized solar cells using blackberry juice and other common household materials. Up to 5 people can be making a cell at once and it only takes 5 min to complete.