school year excerpts 

Pacific Beach - Solar Science

What makes our star, the sun, so important to life as we know it? Why did the eclipse of August 2017 occur? How does Earth’s geomagnetic field protect us from electromagnetic radiation (solar energy)? Why does the sound produced from a solar powered buzzer change with different amounts of shading over the solar cells?

 Finding answers to these questions and more, students conducted hands-on experiments, from magnetizing compasses to using photovoltaic cells, to explore electromagnetic radiation and our earth’s magnetosphere. 

Barnard Language Academy – Properties of Water

How does water density affect life on Earth? What is happening when a water strider moves across the surface of water?  What makes a water molecule so unique? Students work to find answers to these questions and more while exploring the properties of water through predicting, experimenting, and communicating their ideas during this hands-on lab.

Barnard - Climate Data

San Diego Youth Science has been working with Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Geological Collections Lab to bring ocean sediment cores and microfossils into this session of science. Student research teams work to drill sediment cores, sieve microfossils, create their own sediment core samples, and more in this hands-on lab.

Pacific Beach - Gravity 

Which will land first, the pumpkin or the apple? What is gravity, and how does it affect our planet and our solar system? If I spin the bicycle wheel gyroscope very fast, will its centripetal force spin me? When I place a rock (the sun) in the fabric of space-time, will the marbles (planets and moons) behave differently? How fast does my research partner need to spin our water balloon (satellite) for it to reach its escape velocity?

Barnard Elementary

Experimentation with electricity allows students to experience authentic trial and error.