PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 16, 2021
Magic and science at MHS
A
change in audience.
B
“I am a high school teacher
and many of the things I thought
would work really well, didn’t [for
younger students]. It’s just diff er-
ent. Middle school is diff erent,”
Gershin said.
Some activities he thought
students would breeze through
turned out to be all-day processes.
It became a lesson for him as well
as his pupils.
Perhaps the most refreshing
thing about the camp was the
sound of student chatter that
fi lled the room when they arrived.
Gershin said students began camp pretty
reserved but, eventually, started opening
up and socializing more.
“They’re making those connections and
they’re actually talking to other kids, which
is a great thing right now,” Gershin said.
Making Oobleck slime, a liquid that
acts like a solid when subjected to force
(like punching it), was a favorite among
campers and they felt trebuchet-building
was the most challenging, but still fun.
Several said they would be open to similar
camp activities in the future.
C
A: Dylan McGuirk. B: Mason Fjeldheim and
Rueben Gershin. C: Harper Jackman. Photos
by BROOKLYN FLINT of Keizertimes
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S in’
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N
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TR
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By BROOKLYN FLINT
Of the Keizertimes
Oobleck slime, elephant toothpaste
(“exploding” foam), constructing siege
weapons and building spaghetti bridges
were but a few of the activities at the
Science-Magic Design Camp the fi rst week
of July.
The program was led by Reuben
Gershin, a science teacher who works in
the EDGE online program. He has been
teaching mostly physics and chemistry for
more than 10 years.
“The point of this camp was to try to
get them to do science. To do something,
look at the results, change it, do it again,
something like the spaghetti bridge. What
worked, what didn’t, what can we learn
from this kind of thing? And so that’s what
we’re going to do with the paper airplanes,”
Gershin said.
Paper airplanes was the activity for
the day on Friday, July 9. The students
researched diff erent ways to construct
their airplane, decorated it to their liking
and held a contest to see how they would
fl y. The goal was to help the classmates
look at science in a diff erent light.
The camp is one of nearly 200 summer
programs off ered throughout the Salem-
Keizer School District and one of dozens
being hosted at McNary High School. The
programs include science, music, fi lm and
much more.
Gershin taught in New Mexico for 10
years where he collected ideas for activi-
ties to present at the camp.
“In my career in New Mexico, what I
used to do is I had a science club and we
used to have science demo nights where
the kids would put together stuff . I stole
most of my ideas from that experience,”
Gershin said.
The process of setting up the program
started at the end of the school year, which
was diffi cult in itself alongside the regular
year-end chaos, he said.
Another challenge for Gershin was the
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