NIC left brains unite at expo

The left brains of North Idaho College came together on April 12 to display their works of genius at a science, technology, engineering and math exposition.

The upstairs level of the SUB overflowed with robots, wires, screens, surveillance cameras, geologic exhibits, chemistry demonstrations and much more. The individuals behind these creations and experiments were filled with enthusiasm and proudly shared their left-brained knowledge with all who would stop and listen. Although, much of what they shared required at least some interpretation for the average listener.

Dean Roberts, NIC physics instructer, brought his electric guitar to the expo to give a demonstration of physics in relation to sound. He used his guitar to show the behavior of stationary waves on strings, which is called “stroboscopic behavior.” He then related that to “magnetic induction which produces a current signal in the electronic of a guitar. Then that current is carried to your amplifier. And then you have sound!”

Along with physics, geology was also represented at the expo by the president of NIC’s geology club and geology major, Joshua Williams, 33. His demonstration included gold prospecting. But the reason for his prospecting was not for obtaining the gold, it was to show the fundamentals of density and specific gravity. The gold was denser than the water, but when in smaller particles, it could be suspended on the surface of the water.

“I was rather impressed,” Williams said he enjoyed the expo, “It had a great turnout and a lot of energy was involved.”

While Williams was panning for gold, the chemistry club was making ice cream with milk, sugar, ice and liquid nitrogen… and eating it. Sara Trautwein, 21, pre-veterinary science, explained that it was safe to eat because the liquid nitrogen only acted as a catalyst. A catalyst is a substance that speeds up the reaction without being part of the reaction, Trautwein explained.

“I think it was a success,” said Reese Beard, 15, engineering major and chemistry club member. “A lot of people thought what we did was pretty cool.”

Corey Koerner, 26, environmental science major, agreed. “It shows a lot of people that science can be fun.”

Science and fun did collide at this expo. Something else that collided at the expo was robots. Students Jessica Doll, 18, computer science and Shevelle Bollman, 19, mathematics showed off the robots that they and their fellow students programmed themselves. They explained that their class likes to do bot battles– like an NIC version of the bot battles from the movie “Big Hero Six.”

“When we get eight bots going at once, it gets pretty exciting,” Doll said.

While most students programmed their robots to back up when the touch sensor was triggered in a bot battle, Bollman explained that they programmed their bots to accelerate and ram into the retreating bot.

Doll and Bollman said the expo was fun and had a great turnout.

“It was definitely a nerd day,” Doll said.