Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Mississippi —Mississippi State University’s Wood Magic Science Fair will be in Jackson to participate in the second annual Mississippi Science Fest later this month.
MSU Wood Magic will be an attraction at the Sept. 23 STEM-themed festival, focused on delivering a hands-on experience for children and families that sparks curiosity in various STEM-related fields.
The Mississippi Science Fest is a partnership between the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum; Mississippi Children’s Museum; Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Museum of Natural Science; and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. A $10 ticket will admit attendees to all four museums for participation in the daylong event. MSU Wood Magic will be showcased at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum.
At the event, MSU Wood Magic will cover a variety of topics centered on the forest products industry, including:
—Daily Wood, which details daily wood use and tells the success story of reforestation. In this event, misinformation regarding the history and coverage of forests is debunked.
—Wood Sandwich, where attendees test how strong they are by breaking a veneer and then trying to break an assembled piece of plywood.
—Rock Stars, where attendees guess how much weight a tensile wooden specimen the size of pencil lead can hold before it breaks. The load is increased by pouring rocks into a bucket supported by the wooden sample.
— Bubbling Bazookas, a demonstration of wood properties including density, hardness, and permeability, where attendees turn small red oak billets into magical bubble blowers.
The Wood Magic Science Fair is sponsored by the MSU College of Forest Resources, MSU Extension Service, Mississippi Forestry Association and the Mississippi Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
For more information on the Wood Magic Science Fair, contact Edward D. Entsminger at 662-325-4028 or edward.entsminger@msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.