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Al Armstrong, a technician at Kimberly-Clark of Lexington, holds up a Ziploc bag full of water.

“What will happen if I stick a pencil through here?” he asks a room full of attentive Millis Road Elementary School students.

The responses are typical — the bag will burst or leak.

But Armstrong sticks one colorful pencil after another through the bag. “Why is the water not leaking?” he asks.

“The water is too heavy,” one boy guesses.

Armstrong explains how pressure seals the plastic to each of the pencils so that water doesn’t escape.

This is Millis Road’s Science Day. Victor Nelson, an employee of Kimberly-Clark, has gathered a group of coworkers to volunteer for activities. Usually, the company partners with Davidson County Schools, but Nelson’s 9-year-old daughter, Imani Nelson attends fourth grade at Millis Road, and he wants to help out.

Linda Holden says the focus of the day is to teach students that science isn’t just something that happens in the classroom, but everyday. Kimberly-Clark brings a lot of its products — such as Scott tissues and Huggies diapers — for show and tell and explains how science helps employees create and improve those products.

After Armstrong’s presentation, each class gathers at one of four tables to participate in experiments. Kindergartners through third-graders play with colored water and a diaper. Fourth- and fifth-graders learn how water, oil and soap don’t mix and what kinds of objects will float in each layer.

“It’s like a computer mouse,” second-grade teacher Kristin Rhyne says as she explains how to use a dropper. “Don’t let go until you’re where you want to (drop the liquid).”

Outside, a brief experiment with soda and candy leaves children exploding with laughter. The drink fizzles and shoots into the air after a Mentos candy is added to the container.

“Can you drink it?” a student asks volunteers Stephanie Odom and Jason Saxon.

“No, you don’t want to drink it,” Odom says laughing.

“We hope to get them thinking about science and what they want to do for their science projects in January,” Odom says.

Each classroom will create a science project to share in January, and then each student can create their own project, if they want.

Rhyne’s class is going to throw pumpkins in a pond to demonstrate how they float. “It’s hard for them to understand that air takes up space,” the second-grade teacher explains. “They’re totally shocked that the pumpkin floats because it’s so heavy.”

Third-grader Kaitlin McGoogen, 8, already has an idea for her project. She plans to emerge rusty nails in different liquids to see which nails become even more rusty over time.

Her hypothesis? “I think (the nails in) the water will be the most rusty,” Kaitlin says. “Because water doesn’t have anything in it.”

Science is now an end-of-grade test for fifth-grade.

“We want kids to get more excited about science,” Principal Russell Harper says. “We focus so much on math and reading, we miss so many kids that could be doctors, scientists, chemists or so many things.”

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves @news-record.com