read-a-thon

Fourth-graders from Branch Elementary School watch intently as Brian Moore, a chemist at Air Force Research Laboratory Detachment 7, demonstrates how to use pH indicators to differentiate between an acid and a base. Employees from AFRL joined Branch Elementary School students to celebrate the conclusion of the school‘s month long read-a-thon. (Air Force photo by Kate Blais)

read-a-thon

Capt. Jeremy Selstrom, Air Force Research Laboratory Detachment 7 Liquid Engines Branch deputy chief, holds out a banana that had just been submerged in liquid nitrogen, causing it to freeze solid. Captain Selstrom, along with other AFRL personnel, visited Branch Elementary School April 1 to help celebrate the conclusion of the school‘s month-long read-a-thon. (Air Force photo by Kate Blais)

Branch Elementary blasts off with month-long read-a-thon

Published April 6, 2011
By Kate Blais
95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Imagine accumulating nearly a year's worth of reading in just under a month. Perhaps an impossible feat for just an individual, a group of many little readers can make logging hundreds of thousands of reading minutes look easy.

Students from Branch Elementary School spent the month of March focused on reading in the "Blast off With Reading" read-a-thon.

"The whole point of it is to raise awareness and get kids reading," said Alexia Svejda, Branch Elementary Parent Teacher Organization president. "We know, by talking to teachers, kids read more because of this [program]. We've had more reads this year than we've ever had, and kids who don't normally read, are reading."

This year's goal was to reach 400,000 minutes as a school. Blowing that number out of the water, students alone logged 493,475 minutes, and when combined with the time teachers spent in class reading, the school as a whole can boast to clocking 515,399 minutes.

"I really love it [reading] because it opens you up to worlds," said Nadia Svejda, the top 3rd-grade reader with 5,463 minutes. "You can get so caught up in your books, like one time my dad was vacuuming right in front of me and I didn't even notice."

To celebrate the students' efforts, rocket scientist engineers from Air Force Research Laboratory Detachment 7 demonstrated scientific experiments to accompany this year's theme of "Blast off With Reading."

Students were treated to demonstrations like Bernoulli's Principle, pH indicators and altering physical properties of objects using liquid nitrogen.

With the introduction of each hands-on station, the students reacted much like they were part of a crowd at a rock concert, enthusiastically applauding and cheering for science.

"When they [students] see their peers do well and getting some kind of recognition, it encourages them to read more," said 3rd-grade teacher Jane McGrath. "I think they really enjoy it."