It was Science Family Fun Night at Willow Lane Elementary School recently when about 90 children, accompanied by parents, spent the evening with student teacher volunteers from Muhlenberg College to learn some hands-on science.

Willow Lane Elementary School Principal Dr. Anthony Moyer kept the building open and welcomed guests as they arrived, parents in tow.

The program, supervised by Muhlenberg’s Professor Sally Richwine, used volunteer student teachers who, in turn, staffed 11 stations the children rotated through during the evening. Each station featured some particular aspect of science made into fun experiments suitable for elementary children.

“The students designed their own lesson plans for their stations,” Richwine said.

“This is the coolest thing!” Scarlet Weimann said, as she watched colored water wick through paper towels to create a rainbow-hued arc, thus demonstrating capillary action. Scarlet is the daughter of Matthew and Sonia Weimann.

Scarlet comes by her affinity for science naturally as her mother, Sonia, is a doctoral candidate student in science at Lehigh University and Scarlet’s father is a third-grade teacher at Willow Lane Elementary.

Student Allie Kusko was there with her dad, Eric; together, they worked at putting an electrical circuit together.

Mathew Shickel was messily engrossed in making his paper towel rainbow at the capillary action demonstration station as his mother, Julie watched. She laughed as she commented, “It’s great to see him getting to make a mess that’s not in my kitchen.”

Muhlenberg College student teacher Dylan Ziegelbaum, from Scarsdale, N.Y., helped Sean Tillinghast understand the workings of a flower using construction paper cutouts to illustrate the various parts.