Each Saturday during the year, we have sessions led by local experts on some aspect of science that fascinates them.  During these sessions, the students get their hands dirty with experiments on one of the day’s topics.

 

A Typical Saturday Morning:

After arrival, the students introduce and discuss some science in the news or that they learned about at school.  Afterwards, the expert leader briefly introduces that day’s topic(s) followed by the experiments.  ​​Topics covered change from week to week and year to year, and many areas of science are included in science (physics, chemistry, biology), technology (computer science), engineering (civil, chemical, materials, electrical) and mathematics.

​​

Example Topics:

• Build and launch model rockets (the start of each season).

• Learn how bits of medicine are packaged into capsules and pills by making them out of powdered sugar or gelatine and cookie sprinkles.

• Find the iron particles in cereal with magnets.

• Hear and see the sound vibrations of musical instruments.

• Dissect frogs or cow eyes.

• Build a scale model of the solar system with Playdoh.

• “See” music and sounds on a signal analyzer.

​

Independent Projects:

As part of the program, students independently conduct a science project of their choice outside of the sessions. We encourage students to choose projects that ask a question, involve designing and carrying out an experiment or series of observations, and drawing conclusions relating to their original question.  Students present the results of their science project to family, friends, and fellow students at a mini-conference at the end of the year, called Parents Day.

 

Example Independent Projects:

• Hold your Breath! (a study in hyperventilation techniques)

• Electromagnets (how the number of turns, current and core material affect magnetic strength)

• Designing and building a self-contained circuit mounted on a shoe for the visually impaired to locate obstacles)

• Robot control (using Lego Mind storm sets and Arduino control circuits programmed in Java)

​

Parents’ Day:

This is the mini-conference that concludes the AIS program for the year.  Multiple concurrent sessions are held during which the students present their science project and answer questions.  Afterwards, an invited speaker – a well-known individual or topic - gives a short talk on their scientific work and entertains questions from the AIS students.

​​