Energy sparks science success

Third-graders at Eastham Elementary School got a taste of teaching this past school year and won national kudos as a result. For six months, the students focused on energy, creating projects and exhibits, including a solar oven, and taught younger and older students about energy conservation. The National Energy Education Development project, which worked with the school and others around the nation, gave the class a Rookie of the Year award. The children and their teachers, Maggie Brown and Tamsyn Shaw, were invited to Washington, D.C., last month to accept their award and mingle with other students. Before they left for Washington, the class held a press conference. Students Meghan Connors and Scott McMullin moderated.

HOW THEY WON: ''We did different experiments and games [at a school fair]," Shaw said. ''With the fifth graders we did more chemical stuff . . . light and heat, endothermic and exothermic reactions, we pumped electricity through pickles and fruit."

BRINGING THE CAPE TO WASHINGTON: ''There is going to be a big dinner where the kids trade trinkets, so we'll bring a lot of Cape Cod and Eastham things. . . stickers from the Cape Cod potato chip factory, pins, pencils," Shaw said.

FROM STUDENTS TO TEACHERS: ''We believe that in some instances, teachers need to be facilitators," Brown said. ''Once [students] buy into learning, we don't have to worry about them. They're very capable, so if they talk about it with each other, they can get more out of it than if we were just standing up there."

KID TALK ABOUT ENERGY: ''My project was to do some motion things, and I also did geothermal [energy]," McMullin said. ''I had some cars that stored kinetic energy. The biggest thing I probably learned was how to save energy in my house, which is probably the main thing we were supposed to learn."

THIRD-GRADER'S TEACHING STINT: ''I taught people about wind energy," Connors said. ''If I were going to tell someone something about wind, I would probably say it's a renewable resource and it's always there. [Teaching other classes] was hard but it was fun. Sometimes they don't get it, so you have to explain the best you can."

CYRA MASTER