Now in it’s third year, the General Atomics Science Show on Kaua`i offers fourth-, sixth- and eighth-grade students a chance to experience first-hand the magic of science. Hopefully, it sparks their interest in science, math and engineering.
Scientists Rick Lee and Alex Nagy aim to make it fun.
“In order for it to work, we have to think like the kids — imaginatively, creatively and outside the box,” Lee said. “We have to remember the thrill when you see something for the first time.”
Lee and Nagy are part of a research team at General Atomics, and have staged the show for thousands of students and teachers up and down the West Coast, and as far north as Quebec, Canada, and as far east as New Orleans.
This year’s theme was “Motion and Planetary Science.” To maximize exposure, Lee and Nagy hosted six different shows in which all students sat within 100 feet of the stage, easily able to see the pair’s 20 or so demonstrations ranging from missile launches to wave motion.
King Kaumuali‘i Elementary fourth-grader Cheyenne Andrade echoed the common sentiment afterward, saying the show was interesting.
“It looked like the things we’re supposed to cover in our first quarter benchmark maps,” said Joel Kawate, a King K teacher.
Students and parents were invited to meet four individuals that exemplify the vision of KIS — local residents who return to work on Kaua‘i in scientific fields either at the Pacific Missile Range Facility or with its supporting companies: Leland Tottori, Aubrey Kuneshige and Class of 2000 Kaua‘i High grads Nathan Momohara and Cheyne Ebata.
Funded by a Department of Energy grant, General Atomics partnered with the Kaua‘i Children’s Discovery Museum and Kaua‘i In STEP, a Science and Technology Education Partnership, to put on the show.
Office of Economic Development director Beth Tokioka credited the work of In STEP — and the island’s movement toward youth sciences instruction — to the Team Tech Kaua‘i program created 31/2 years ago by Mayor Bryan Baptiste, PMRF, the Kaua‘i Economic Development Board and the state Department of Education.
Even farther back, though, the In STEP program traces its roots to Riverside, Calif., a largely agricultural community that did not send very many students into math and science fields.
Much like Kaua‘i, actually, said John Fishell, a manager with Naval Sea Systems Command Corona.
NAVSEA Corona’s “human capital strategy” included the Riverside In STEP program.
Jim Kuga, president and chief executive of Virginia-based Envisioneering, a science and technologies solutions company with works closely with the federal government, first learned of In STEP sitting in a NAVSEA Corona briefing.
Envisioneering’s regional business coordinator on Kaua‘i and the CEO’s brother, Richard Kuga was aware of the problem facing high tech companies on Kaua‘i. Engineers from the Mainland stay for a year or two, then leave due to the high cost of living.
The solution, Kuga said, seemed to be to get local kids interested early in going to college so they can return to Kaua`i and fill high tech positions. The Riverside In STEP model seemed to be a perfect fit.
Envisioneering brought the idea to Baptiste, and Team Tech Kaua‘i was born.
Now in its seventh year in Riverside, Fishell said In STEP is a long-term investment.
“You need to do this over and over,” he said. “Out of the thousands that come through, not everyone wants to be a scientist. If you can spark a small number and multiply by thousands, you have a good number.”
He’s just now beginning to see participants in the early In STEP program showing up in colleges.
“I have hired a couple as interns,” he said.
The sophomore engineering majors have told him the In STEP programs from their middle school days helped influence their career paths.
The meat of Lee and Nagy’s show was not lost on the students this week. Emcee Troy Clarke, cofounder of the Riverside In STEP, capped the show with questions for the students, to which most responded correctly about reflective wave motion, gravity, acceleration, plasma and the scientist’s credo, OTD — observe, think and do.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com.
