Colorado State University

On our Fall semester break the Little Shop of Physics in partnership with Colorado State University Native American Cultural Center and Oglala Lakota College took the road program to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The crew was made up of teachers, students and volunteers.

This was our 8th annual trip to the Pine Ridge reservation, and we have now visited every school on Pine Ridge. The trip began with our traditional stop at Carhenge, outside of Alliance Nebraska. Carhenge is a scale replica of Stonehenge, but constructed with cars. It was a breezy day and we enjoyed our picnic lunch inside our vehicles. We did manage to take a quick tour of the car art.

We journeyed up to Pine Ridge, SD and stayed both nights at the Sacred Earth Lodge.

All the students at both schools we visited received a science at home kit equipped with a talking strip, sunburn beads, rainbow glasses, and a reusable hand warmer. Thank you to the Halliburton Foundation who provided the funding for the science at home kits! Below is a picture of the crew packing some of the bags.

On Monday, November 24 we visited Red Cloud Indian Schools and set up our 100+ science experiments in the gymnasium for the light room and stage for our dark room.

We started with a couple minute “warm up” introduction using flash cotton.

Then the students were able to explore Little Shop of Physics. There were over 850 students from Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary Schools, Red Cloud Elementary School, and Red Cloud High School, all of whom explored Little Shop of Physics.

On Tuesday, November 25, we visited Pine Ridge School. Despite the school delay due to icy roads, we were still able to see all 660 students at the school. We set up in the gymnasium with both our light and dark experiments. The flash cotton definitely was a good ice breaker!

The students at both schools showed us new ways to look at our projects and the physical world around. It is hard to say who learned more — us or the students!