The R.O.C.K. program provides local schools and youth organizations with the opportunity to experience chemistry in real life situations. The purpose is to demonstrate to the local K-12 students that science (especially chemistry) is important in everyone's life and can be exciting and interesting. R.O.C.K. also provides students with the chance to experience and participate with the available equipment provided by the R.O.C.K. program, all free of charge.
R.O.C.K. performs hands-on chemistry experiments and activities using mainly household products to show the importance of chemistry in day to day living. They focus on classroom visits (not stage presentations) in the 5 county area around SFU (Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Clearfield, and Somerset). R.O.C.K. also looks at the role that chemistry will have in the future as well as how it will benefit our society.
Steve Mosey a Junior Pre-Med. Biology major presented a demonstration to students in grade three at Cambria Elementary. The third grade teachers selected the “Oily Oceans” lesson from a list. The Oily Oceans concept included causes and aftermath of oil spills. The students learned about the causes of oil spills and the difficult process of the oil spill clean-up by reading Prince William by Gloria and Ted Rand. The children also learned about density of oil in comparison to water by discussing what happens in mousse demonstration. Finally, the students were invited to clean a feather from an oil spill to simulate helping animals after a spill and finding an efficient way to clean it.
