Mad Science dropped by the Richmond Community College’s Cole Auditorium to teach kids the science of sound and music.
As part of a program put on by the Rockingham Library, hundreds of area children filled Cole Auditorium’s banquet room for an hour-long teaching the science of sound and its application to music and daily life.
“We’ve had great experiences with Mad Science. We’ve been really looking forward to it,” said Sydney King, Rockingham Library director of children’s programs. “… We like to have events where they can learn, even during the summer when they have a lot of fun things going on. We like to bring the fun to education when it comes to the programs we have. Last week, we had Steve Summers, who is a magician that came in. We like to have fun and incorporate education into our summer fun.”
Throughout the event. Dr. G-Force selected multiple student volunteers to teach lessons on the way sound travels, sound pitches made in specific conditions and how to manipulate those conditions to create the desired sounds. By using musical instruments, household items or scientific instruments, students learned how sound impacts their daily lives and mental well-being.
“I love working with kids. That’s always been my thing. I’ve done mad science for about 18 years. I’ve probably done 16,000 stage shows. Even after all of these years, I still love working with the kiddos,” said Dr. Johnny G-Force with Mad Science. “… Today’s theme was ‘Sounds like Science.’ We did how sound travels, how to make sounds through air moving, through solids, through heat and through playing with fire, which is something [RCC Facilities Director Joey Bennett] did. It’s simply enjoying yourself so kids can learn about science in a very fun manner.”
For Bennett, programs such as Mad Science reinforce RCC’s mission to educate the community regardless of their student status on campus. Now only does it familiarize potential future students to the campus, it also brings them into a facility they may have driven by hundreds of times but never stopped in.
“We’re always glad to host. We love having the library kids here … It’s especially great having the kids in how one day a week over the summer to come and see us. We get people in every day that have never been in the building but lived here a long, long time. They say ‘I’ve never been in the building, but I drive by all of the time. It’s great public events that allow us to showcase the building, tell them a little bit about what we do and the kids programming we have coming up in our regular season,” Bennett said.