Manchester community celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with hands-on science

Six year old Raziel Vielmas stared down the air cannon at SEE Science Center. He fidgeted with his Spider-man jacket while he waited for science educator Julia Levault to activate it. The cannon fired a perfect ring of smoke that drifted lazily towards him.

“It feels like I got smoked,” said Raziel.

He visited the center with his dad, Ruben Vielmas, and twin sister, Yuna. They participated at an open house hosted by the SEE Science Center and a number of community partners so kids could participate in live science demonstrations and learn more about Latino contributions to science.

Vielmas is an engineer, but he said he struggled with math while he was in community college. He got through those classes with help from his professors and hands-on activities like the ones his kids got to experience.

“I got an idea of being active with these kinds of events too at my school,” he said. “That got me engaged and motivated to get me through those hard classes.”

Now that he’s an adult, he hopes to inspire a love of science, technology, engineering and math in his kids through these kinds of hands-on science activities.

SEE Science Director Shana Hawrylchak said it’s important for kids to see science in action. This year’s “Science Fiesta” was the first time the center had worked with other community groups to put on an event that also gave them a chance to highlight the contributions of Latino scientists.

“We think it’s really important for people to have role models to look up to and this is an area where there are so many Latino scientists to choose from,” she said. “It’s literally endless,”

For example, the museum had a placard about Luis Walter Alvarez, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 but isn’t as well known as other scientists that lived at the same time.

In addition to highlighting notable Latino scientists, organizers also hoped to spark curiosity for science for the kids who visited the center. As a doctor and the director of Centro Latino, Trinidad Tellez said that hands-on interactions with science helped broaden kids’ horizons. Because of this, she said the community partners worked to lower barriers by providing transportation and a bilingual interpreter so everyone could participate.

“When you expose kids to these kinds of exhibits, this kind of information can open their doors and inspire them,” she said in Spanish. “They can learn that they have the right to aspire to more.”

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