What do you think would happen to you if you ate three pepperoni pizzas, a Snickers bar, a gallon of chocolate chip ice cream a box of Twinkies and a blueberry soda for breakfast? According to Sam the Dragon who visited Robert Waters School on Summit Avenue in Union City on Dec. 14, you’d get a really bad stomach ache.
Sam the Dragon visited the school’s second grade classes as part of the Liberty Science Center’s Traveling Science Program to present the Little Dragon’s Digestive Show.
The Little Dragon’s Digestive show used an obstacle course, made of a slide and pool, to teach the students about the digestive system.
Liberty Science Center has a partnership with the state to provide programs to Abbott District, or special needs district, schools. Union City is one of the 30 Abbott Districts in New Jersey.
The second grade students who sat in on the assembly were taught about the digestive system last week.
"This is an added extra activity that enhances what they have learned in class," said Susan McCue, the science teacher for grades one through four at Robert Waters School.
"The kids learn more and they don’t even know that they are learning," added McCue "It is a lot more hands on."
During the show, the students learned about their teeth, their digestive system and how to identify good and bad foods.
The traveling Science Program at Liberty Science Center also offers Science Circus, a show that focuses on physical science, and a cow’s eye dissection program.
According to Lucy Todd, who works with the Board of Education in their technology department, the Traveling Science program will visit every elementary school in Union City.
Todd said that this partnership with Liberty Science Center also provides students with electronic field trips where the students can visit the center and have class sessions with Liberty Science Center staff members from their classrooms.
A group of about 12 Union City students will also be invited to participate in a school residency program offered at Liberty Science Center.
Todd said that the will be chosen from the district’s seventh and eighth grade classes and also the Emerson High School Advanced Placement Anatomy and Physiology and Biology students. These students will help the center develop new field trip topics and traveling science programs.
The partnership also provides the students with free passes to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.