News Release

OLCs Little Shop of Physics Program Played at Agate Fossil Beds for National Science Education Day

Jesse Pina from OLC demonstrates the Loop to Loop experiment. Visitors were challenged to get the ping pong ball through each hoop only using the air from the hair dryer.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: March 12, 2023

Contact: Tera Lynn Gray, 308-665-4113

Professors from Oglala Lakota College were at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument this past Saturday, March 11^th in recognition of National Science Education Day. They shared their love for hands-on science with nearly 100 visitors throughout the afternoon.

Activities such as Loop to Loop, Disappearing Pig, and Disgust-o-Scope had kids engaged for several hours. Science words were tossed around like they were everyday words kids use on the playground. A 1-year-old laughed when she held a vibrating string, and her sister counted the number of wavelengths made on the string. A young boy shrieked with delight when he told his dad, “Look, I made a wind tunnel!”

Merle Brave and Jesse Pina brought the hands-on science experiments through a program called Little Shop of Physics. The program originated at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Brian Jones, the Director and Founder of the program, states, “The big message is that science is accessible. The stuff we do is exciting, it’s fun, it’s engaging.” Jones and the program worked with Oglala Lakota College to set-up their own program and have been in partnership for over a decade.

Oglala Lakota College is on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The partnership between the Oglala Lakota and Agate Fossil Beds started back in 1875 when a young James H. Cook met Chief Red Cloud at Fort Robinson. The great chief was questioning O.C Marsh about his activities in the Black Hills. Since Mr. Cook knew some of the Lakota language, as well as Plains Indian Sign Language, he was able to interpret the conversation for the two men. As a paleontologist, O.C. Marsh was there to look for fossils, not gold. This meeting sparked a friendship between the Cook and Red Cloud families that would last generations.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument now preserves and interprets the gifts exchanged between the Red Cloud and Cook families over the following decades, as well as the fossils Cook found at his ranch.

The event on Saturday was one way Agate tries to continue that friendship that was started so long ago. Check out the park’s calendar for more events with individuals from the Oglala Lakota tribe.