Young Investigators Conference

As with all serious scientific endeavors, it is important to share results and communicate with colleagues. With this as a goal, participants in Science Firsthand (SF) were invited to take part in a “Young Investigators Conference”. Held at the Buffalo Zoo on a Sunday afternoon in April, the event brought over 170 people together from across the city – adult/youth teams, community center personnel, family members, and the public at large. It became a celebration of the participants’ investigatory work and a showcase for what they had learned during their months of firsthand inquiry.

The topics were wonderfully diverse; all seven community centers presented displays of SF projects, from posters to hands-on activities to live creatures to observe. The most popular stations offered opportunities for direct exploration – with pond animals, paper-making, ram air cars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_air), slime, and milkweed bugs. Many attendees were fascinated by monitoring the effect of exercise (running) on skin temperature using an infrared thermometer.

A youth director who had not been able to attend the Conference reported, “Casandra, Kaitly, Bizzy, Cheyane, my son Michael and his friend came back to the house reporting that they had a great time at the zoo. Michael said he really enjoyed the 'Science Convention' and watching the kids do their experiments. He said it was pretty cool.”

Click to see Quicktime movie

Click to see Quicktime movie