The Pacific Science Center made a trip to Covington last Friday. The center’s science on wheels program stopped at Jenkins Creek Elementary to provide students with interactive experiences that were part of the “space odyssey” theme.

Students of all grades were able to look at and interact with space-related exhibits. They were able to touch an actual meteorite, see how much they would weigh on Mars, operate a remote-controlled robotic arm to pick up objects, solve a moon puzzle and locate constellations.

Most of the stations were set up in the library, but several classes around the school were doing some kind of project throughout the morning. There was also a planetarium set up in the gymnasium.

The most popular exhibits in the library were the robotic arm and the demonstration of a gyroscope using a bicycle tire.

In the latter exhibit, students stood on a rotating platform and held onto the pegs of a spinning bicycle wheel. Rotating the wheel side to side would make the platform rotate in the opposite direction, a demonstration of simple physics, or conservation of angular momentum.

The Pacific Science Center’s science on wheels program goes to schools, libraries, community events, fairs and festivals all across Washington. For more information, go to www.pacificsciencecenter.org/Science-on-Wheels/science-on-wheels.