Sharing a love for science

In the Harvard Science Center, hundreds of Cambridge eighth-graders gasped in amazement as they watched liquid nitrogen violently and instantaneously transform from a boiling liquid to a frozen solid and back again - all while trapped under the pressure of a bell jar's clear dome. "You're now among the very few people in this world who have seen nitrogen not just as a gas and a liquid - which is pretty cool all by itself - but also as a solid," said the science lecture demonstrator, Daniel Rosenberg, as the students burst into wild applause. Rosenberg's demonstration was part of the third annual Science and Engineering Showcase , which brought nearly 400 eighth-graders from Cambridge public schools to Harvard's campus. The students viewed demonstrations by Harvard graduate students and faculty, toured facilities such as the Center for Nanoscale Systems , and presented hundreds of their own science projects under the tent on the Science Center Plaza. Prior to the showcase, students from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) had made regular visits to the young scientists to support their projects and provide feedback, all part of the University's broad support of local schools. The eighth-graders projects were as diverse as the students themselves, exploring the potential future of solar-powered vehicles and boats, envisioning clay huts strong enough to resist earthquakes, imagining the next level in clean-up solutions for oil spills, and delving into the endless possibilities of Lego robotics.