Science camp buoys students’ skill

The proof was in the pennies. The more pennies the middle schoolers’ homemade rafts could hold before sinking, the better the design. “ … 24 pennies … 55 pennies … 92 pennies,” ExxonMobil mechanical engineer Joel Deal announced as he counted pennies scooped from the rafts that sank to the bottom of a small tub of water.

The students held their breath as Deal counted the pennies for the raft designed by a team called The Reinforcers. Their raft managed to stay afloat under the weight of 105 pennies.

The 48 students at this summer's science experiment are participants in the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at Southern University.

For more on the camp, see the article on 2theadvocate.com.