Guest Scientists Share States of Matter with Lone Pine Students

Lone Pine students and staff may be well familiar with Rena Kirshenbaum, a beloved BHS staff member for many years. Recently retired, Kirshenbaum, and husband Ken, a retired scientist, have embarked upon a new adventure: sharing their love of science with elementary school students. They plan to provide science experiments to each grade level at Lone Pine Elementary School this year, and began the program with 2nd grade. The grade 2 curriculum includes a study of states of matter, so the Kirshenbaum team focused their first lesson on how different materials impact water when mixed together. Students placed solids and liquids, including popcorn, cumin, cocoa, flour, honey, ketchup, and vanilla, into water to determine if the result was a mixture, a solution, or something else entirely!

Rena shared, “We’ve always wanted to bring more science into the school. Ken is a scientist, and we want to encourage science. We hope that down the line we can get more scientists! The school staff let us know what science curriculum they’re doing, and what goals they wanted to achieve. Based on that, we’re bringing science lessons to each of the grades.”

Students shared reflections on the fun, educational experience. Brody Dowgiallow notes, “Doing science was a lot of fun because we got to mix things to learn about solids, liquids and gasses.” Ethan Zwiren shares, “He was teaching us about atoms and molecules. Atoms are basically in like everything!” Luisa D'Avila and Rosie Weston both express, “It was very good to see Mrs. K. again because she used to be our teacher and we missed her!”