Sasha Giannotti was in her element as she made her way around the reptile room during the Willard PTO’s Festival of Science on March 10.
“Oh, I love science,” Giannotti said emphatically. Whether through her own experiments — hers explored whether dinoflagellates can glow during the day — or others’, “you can learn a lot,” said the River Forest third-grader.
Willard’s science festival, in its 12th year, included a voluntary student science fair and activity labs in classrooms at the elementary school, set up by science workshop company The Science Alliance with help from parent and community volunteers.
Catherine Greendyke, co-chair of the festival committee, said the event usually revolves around a certain theme, like states of matter or the body, but this year organizers decided to go with a general science theme: “Super Science Spectacular.”
“We really wanted to have the kids make more discoveries with their science,” Greendyke said.
One classroom became a biology room, filled with snakes, bearded dragons and other reptiles children could watch or touch. An electricity lab had students build their own circuit, which they could take home. Other classrooms offered accessible chemistry experiments.
The reptiles and a hovercraft students could take a quick ride on were the most popular with the children, said Anna Sterk, festival committee co-chair.
In the gymnasium, close to 100 student projects covered lunch tables. As their parents coached them along, Alex and Cyrus McNeilly, a third-grader and kindergartner at the school, explained their model of the planets, listing their diameters and distance from the sun.
“They put a lot of effort into it,” said the boys’ dad, Brian McNeilly.
“It’ll be a nice little memory for them to have together. It was fun to see them work together on something, and they weren’t fighting,” mom Amy McNeilly said with a laugh.
Willard Principal Diane Wood enjoys seeing friends or siblings work together, as the McNeillys did. Involving children in science at a young age engages their natural curiosity, she added.
“To me, the magic of this event is the science fair,” she said, noting that many children were eager to share their experiments and results with anyone who would listen, even after judging was complete.
Giannotti’s mom, Amy Guralnick, mentioned the experience teaches children presentation skills, too. She said Giannotti has taken a natural interest in biology and activities like bird watching, and Guralnick appreciates that her oldest daughter is exposing her younger siblings to science.
“I think that’s how kids learn best, is when they can apply something they’re interested in,” Guralnick said.
Second-grader Abby Palmer explained her project: whether various types of sports balls floated in water, which she enjoyed for the opportunity to blend her love of sports with science.
Judges, including librarians, teachers or past committee members, offered thoughts on the students’ projects, said Jeff Bachner, member of the organizing committee. One judge’s comments told a student, “You are a budding scientist!”
Sara Ward, a judge at this year’s fest and past committee chair, enjoys seeing the variety of topics children explore with their own experiments.
“I think it’s really great to see kids as young as kindergarten get excited about science,” Ward said. “It’s really nice to expose the children this young to the scientific method.”
Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
