of the quest to know

Science Day ’13

this week it’s Science Day!

those who can, find the way here to our school

to share their ways of understanding and acting upon the world,

and, by so doing, create windows

at which students can stand and gaze in wonder 

at what insights are accessible through the discipline of science,

as lived by those whose life is such discovery,

first, we explore the heavens and how space rocks abound,

some finding the way to roar through our atmosphere,

then I watch student after student focus microscope, eye, and soul

upon how questions and technology can reveal wonders

we didn’t even know were there,

on the walls, half of the school has found a way

to each open a window into how things are,

and, through the student’s work, we can appreciate each of them

and the world each seeks to help reveal itself and its truths,

each reveals the scientist within more and more

by acting as a scientist and actually experimenting with the world,

I loved to watch their peers pore over the posters

to get a feel for the power of the question asked the universe,

and the power with which a rigor in procedure can imbue the quest to know,

the workshops kaleidoscope:

a 3D printer, a microscope, a rocket,

the bones of a skeleton,

the insights of an aerial camera,

the revelations of gravity’s work through videoing its effects,

the power of braiding till one has a rope,

the wonder of the eye and the brain, DNA and how to be safe,

possibilities and threats within computer code,

in the afternoon, the senior vet of the N.C. Zoo,

reveals the why and how of doing the best we can

to honor and appreciate the lives of the animals there,

later, take a mousetrap, a ping pong ball, tape, and ingenuity,

and catapult for accuracy and for distance,

at the end of the day we celebrate those young scientists
who were most able to dot all the “i’s” 

and cross all the “t’s” in their experiments,

taking the wild brilliance of insight

and pairing it with the disciplined brilliance of procedure,

today we celebrate the power of the mind

to question well enough to start to know,

and the power of the mind to focus and organize well enough 

to get to a window through which understanding can dawn.

by Henry H. Walker

March 8, ’13