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Horses marched in the meadow. A shining copper-plated motorcycle roared. A magician inserted a 1-foot-long steel needle into a white balloon without popping the balloon. A magician retrieved a card from behind a boy's ear. A ballerina danced en pointe across the room. This surreal combination of events was not a circus but took place at the annual "discovery day" at Sedgwick Elementary School.
On the discovery day, presenters—ranging from firefighters to martial artists to NASA engineers—come to Sedgwick to share their professions, special talents or hobbies with the students. "Events like this open the students to new ideas," said Principal Lynn Shimada. "This is a fun day for the students."
On April 6, in addition to the forever-popular K-9 Unit and mounted rangers, the school invited new presenters, including a stained glass artist, a television producer, a cell phone designer and a man who made motorcycles from scratch.
One of the presenters, Nofal Beher, is an alumnus of Sedgwick. He works part-time as a pilot for Southwest Airlines and fulltime as a flight instructor. His nieces are now attending Sedgwick.
"When I was a student here, I hated school but I looked forward to discovery day," said Beher, 24. "We used to have an opera singer, guys from PG&E, but we never had a pilot. I told myself if I became a pilot, I would go back to school. Now I have been doing discovery day for three years."
Beher made sure that his presentation was hands-on. He helped students make planes out of wood. He also demonstrated with a balloon, a straw and a string how a jet works.
Students screamed when Paul Knaack, a stuntman by profession, whipped a piece of paper from a student's hands with a 8-feet-long whip. "It is exactly the same whip used in the Indiana Jones movies," said Knaack, 42. Seeing the students shriek with excitement, Knaack said "the whip got them going."
The stuntman also shot his son Brent in front of his classmates. Knaack put a protection vest and goggles on Brent, wired a tiny explosive device called squib onto the jacket and pressed a button connected to the squib. The students were thrilled when they saw Brent fall and fake dead. "Some of my classmates told me my dad is cool," Brent said.
Hashim Chaudhry, 7, said he was most impressed by Ted Taormina, who spent four months making a copper chopper. "When I grow up, I am going to make a lot of cars and motorcycles so I can ride with my dad," Chaudhry said.
The day was fun and informative not only for students but also teachers.
Second grade teacher Laralee Gubler didn't know how to react when a Tae Kwon Do master asked students to bow to her. "Our relationship with students are very different from the martial artists with their students," she said.
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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer