Wood Magic back on campus

The Seventh Annual Wood Magic Show at Virginia Tech is back for another science-fun year. On Oct. 6 and 7, area schools from Salem, Christiansburg, Auburn, and Blacksburg will be participating in this year’s activities.

Almost 9,000 children, teachers, guests, and volunteers have participated in Wood Magic Shows at Virginia Tech since wood science professor Audrey Zink-Sharp started it in 1992. This science education program for fourth and fifth graders presents factual information in an entertaining, engaging, and interactive way. The Wood Magic program shows children how even aspirin and many every day products come from wood, why wood is important to them, and why they want to be good stewards of trees.

"Underlining themes," said Zink-Sharp, "include how wood adds value to our quality of life, how the forest products industry is taking a responsible approach to the use of natural resources, and how science is used to improve production of recyclable forest products."

The events and curricula are designed around Virginia's Standards of Learning and use Mississippi State's highly successful Wood Magic Science Fair as a template. Co-sponsoring the event with the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products is the Virginia Forest Products Association. Funding for the program comes almost entirely from the wood products industry and agency donations. For further information visit http://www.woodmagic.vt.edu/.