Campus News

Middle-School Mathletes Get Hands-on Science at CAER

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 10, 2013) — The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research hosted its second MathCounts event on the evening of Friday, March 22. 

The fun-filled evening, staffed by CAER outreach staff, researchers, and volunteers was jam-packed with a variety of activities and games all geared toward MathCounts Math-letes, and centered on science, technology, engineering and math education. 

The students were from middle schools across Kentucky, in town for the statewide competition the following Saturday morning. Students, parents and teachers arrived on charter buses to try their hands at building the tallest spaghetti tower, the best K'NEX ping-pong ball launcher, and most bouncy balloon. They crafted mini-gondolas to race down homemade ziplines, and took a turn at designing paper airplanes to fly across the building’s atrium while aiming for targets.

The newest addition to the event was the Biofuels Obstacle Course, designed by renewable fuels researchers, which challenged the visitors to make creative decisions regarding fuel generation and consumption in order to reach the finish line. The researchers participated as team leaders, wearing bright blue hardhats and encouraging the kids to look at biomass vs. fossil fuel energy choices.

At the end of the evening, CAER staff handed out ice cream to the excited visitors.