Twenty-five Bokoshe seventh- and eighth-grade GEAR UP students recently visited Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. The two-story museum consists of a wide array of hands-on activities that allow students to have fun in an engaging way. The museum is home to the Kirkpatrick Planetarium and Oklahoma’s hands-on science museum with more than 35,000 square feet range of science experiments, art, and history.

GEAR UP students learned about various exhibits throughout the museum including CurioCity’s eight neighborhoods ranging from the Wunderground, a cave-like environment where students can explore, problem solve, and navigate obstacles to Spark Park, a complete physics circus. In Spark Park, students can test their balance, experience motion, friction, and distribution of mass. The Red Dirt Dinos: An Oklahoma Dinosaur Adventure featured three dinosaurs that once roamed the Oklahoma including the region’s largest Cretaceous.

Bokoshe students experienced the Science Live show which gave them an opportunity to experience live explosions. The Science Live Host explained the safety rules and the science behind explosions before performing a variety of experiments.

“Educational tours are an important part of Eastern’s GEAR UP program,” said GEAR UP Education Coordinator Bethany Hicks. “The live science demonstrations and experiences everywhere you turn is an incredible experience for the students.”

The field trip was sponsored by Eastern Oklahoma State College GEAR UP. Participating schools take two field trips each academic year—one to tour a college or university and one that is cultural/educational in nature. In 2017, Eastern received a $17 million federal GEAR UP grant and serves over 3,000 students in 39 area schools.