Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2013, Page 61

Description:	2. Junior Ashley Judge stirs the liquid nitrogen to makehomemade ice cream as Ms. Cindy Kvale pours inmore of the substance. Once the ice cream formed,students could dress their desserts with chocolatesauce and sprinkles. PHOTO BY EMILY MOON 3. Steamfrom the liquid nitrogen mixture overflows onto the labtable as students vigorously stir. For their participation,the students were rewarded with homemade icecream. PHOTO BY JAMES TANFORD 4. The HonorsPhysics class marvels as Ms. Cindy Kvale dips aballoon into a container of liquid nitrogen. The balloonemerged shriveled and frozen. PHOTO BY EMILY MOONStudents in Ms. Cindy KvaleHonors Physics class learn aboutthermodynamics and the transferof heat through a series ofenjoyable activities.It was perplexing. It wasfrustrating. It was rewarding. It wasscience teacher Ms. Cindy KvalesHonors Physics, arguably one of themost challenging classes atBloomington South. At times,understanding the concepts, formulasand ideas in the class left studentspulling at their hair in frustration.However, when the studying paid offand the ideas suddenly clicked, theclass became a breeze—until the nextlesson.The tests are bad, juniorHannah Miller said, but its achallenge worth trying.All of these struggles and hoursspent studying were forgotten onHappy Thermo Day, one of the fewdays during which Physics studentscould completely relax. Started byKvale around ten years ago, HappyThermo Day entertained students whileincorporating fun activities involving alow-temperature form of liquid nitrogenthat all physics teachers know, sheadmitted with a shrug.During Happy Thermo Day,students watched in awe as Kvaledropped marshmallows, bananas,flowers and even rubber balls into thetub of liquid, only to come out secondslater completely frozen. But that wasonly half the fun. Later, by pouringliquid nitrogen into a milk and creammixture, students created their veryown ice cream. Add the sprinkles andchocolate sauce provided by Kvale,and it was a personal ice cream shop.Happy Thermo Day would havebeen fun without it, but the ice creamwas the cherry on top, junior EthanBriggs said. The ice cream wasdifferent [than store-bought], but I likedit.Even Kvale admitted that theeducational value of Happy Thermoday is very little, but the class was aresounding success, teaching kids thatwhile physics may have been complexand confusing at times, it could be awhole lot of fun.-JAMES TANFORDM
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/8613
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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