Hope College will host its annual "Science Day" for high school students on Thursday, Nov. 3.
There will be a keynote address and several one-hour presentations on a variety of science-related topics from 9 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Approximately 350 high school students and their teachers from 17 Michigan high schools will attend.
The students' experience will begin at 9 a.m. with the keynote presentation "The Magic of Chemistry: G. Wiz at Work and Play" by Dr. Garon Smith, professor of chemistry at the University of Montana. The presentation will feature a blend of demonstrations performed by Smith's alter ego, Garon the Wizard (G. Wiz), and aspects of his research on topics such as developing clean fuels from crops, conditioning honeybees to find land mines, the chemistry of forest fire smoke, and reducing emissions from pulp and paper mills.
From 10:30 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. and again from 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., the students will each attend one of 19 concurrent presentations. Topics will include, among others, "Medical Milestones in Brain Research," "The Art and Science of Nursing," "Connecting Computer and Other Devices without Wires," "DNA: How Mutations Can Tell Us about the Ancient Past," "Natural History of Lake Michigan Sand Dunes," "Engineering Design Competition," "Particle Accelerators: New Uses for an Old Tool" and "Do Dogs Know Calculus?"
After the conclusion of the second set of presentations, the students and their teachers will have an opportunity for lunch on campus.
Science Day is sponsored by Hope in an effort to introduce high school faculty and students to areas of current research and social interest in the sciences, and to the wide variety of science programs at the college. Hope departments participating in the day include biology, chemistry, computer science, the geological and environmental sciences, nursing, and physics and engineering.