Science, engineering on full display at IIT
John Butler just couldn't believe it.
As the five-year-old peddled away on a stationary bike, three fluorescent light bulbs lit up, flickering in intensity as the Aurora boy struggled to keep his peddling steady.
"Wow," John said as a volunteer explained how a generator was converting his peddle-power into light energy. "That's really cool."
Dozens of families spent Saturday morning touring one of many science displays during the 25th annual DuPage Engineers Week Expo at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Rice Campus in Wheaton. Despite snowy weather, organizers expected more than 1,200 parents and children to tour more than two dozen displays and informational booths set up by area companies and organizations.
Kids had a chance to build Lego skyscrapers and test if they could withstand a miniature earthquake, learn about the dynamics of airlift through paper airplanes, or watch a guy named "Mr. Freeze" explain cryogenics while freezing everything from balloons to a rubber glove with liquid nitrogen.
"We try to get across to the kids that there is nothing that we use in daily life that isn't engineered in some way," said Barbara Kozi, a special projects coordinator who helped organize Saturday's expo. "I don't think most people realize or even seem to think about it."
The only thing on six-year-old Michael Rocha's mind was using all the Legos in his box to build the biggest, baddest, most colorful skyscraper he could imagine. In the end, the Winfield boy's design withstood the force of a moving platform meant to simulate an earthquake.
His prize for this monumental achievement: you guessed it, another box of Legos.
"He just seems to be interested in everything around here," said Adrian Rocha, Michael's father.
Fermilab engineer Jerry Zimmerman spent the afternoon showing a packed room of kids about the effects of liquid nitrogen. Among Zimmerman's tricks was demonstrating how ultra-cold temperatures can collapse balloons and send plastic projectiles crashing across the room.
"The ceiling doesn't like me today," he said.