PICAYUNE, Miss. -- South Mississippi students will learn details about daily wood use when they visit the Mississippi State University Wood Magic Science Fair on March 31.

MSU Wood Magic will be an attraction at the Crosby Arboretum’s Wildlife Day, a one-day event that draws 200 to 300 participants annually.

Students from kindergarten to the eighth grade will learn all about the significance of wood in their lives. Teachers will receive resource materials and contact information for useful teaching aids.

The Daily Wood presentation will teach students how much wood is used by each person daily. Students will hear the success story of reforestation, and presenters will debunk misinformation regarding the history and coverage of forests. Students will watch a film that teaches how all parts of the tree are used in constructing a house and how five trees are planted for each tree harvested.

The Wood Sandwich exhibit will give students a chance to test their strength by breaking a veneer piece and then trying to break an assembled piece of plywood. In Rock Stars, students will guess how much weight a piece of wood the size of pencil lead can hold before it breaks. In this activity, the load is increased by pouring rocks into a bucket supported by the wood sample.

Another event will provide students with an understanding of basic biology in a fun format. They will watch “trained” termites follow ink of a given color. In actuality, the termites will follow a chemical pheromone trail.

The program is capped off with a demonstration of wood properties, including density, hardness and permeability, in the Bubbling Bazookas activity. Students will turn small, red-oak wood pieces into bubble blowers in a competition that will crown a champion who has the longest bubble stream.

The Wood Magic Science Fair, conducted by the MSU Department of Sustainable Bioproducts, will also make stops at Puckett Elementary and Brandon Elementary in Brandon on March 30 and Oak Grove Upper Elementary in Hattiesburg on April 1.

MSU Wood Magic is sponsored by the MSU College of Forest Resources, the MSU Extension Service, the Mississippi Forestry Association and the Mississippi Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

For more information on the Wood Magic Science Fair, contact Edward D. Entsminger at 662-325-4028 or edward.entsminger@msstate.edu.

Writer: Vanessa Beeson
Contact: Edward D. Entsminger, 662-325-4028