The educators of the SPARKS Foundation have a neat trick for quieting students during their science-themed presentations.

They lead a call and response with the students:“Science,” they call out.“Rocks!” the students respond. By the third, whispered call they are calm and focused.It comes in handy, because the foundation’s presentations tend to get quite a response out of the students.On Wednesday, fourth-graders at Panther Valley Intermediate School got a chance to watch chemical reactions and even perform a few of their own under the supervision of “Solar” Sarah Troy, the program’s director, and her team.“I can safely say that I’ve done this lesson over 1,000 times and it never gets old because the reaction of the students keeps it exciting, and joyous, and just a wonderful experience,” Troy said.Along the way, they learned principles such as the three states of matter, the scientific method, and the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions.Some of the skills are advanced and are simply enrichment. But others will be featured on the PSSA test that the fourth-graders will take starting on Monday.Fourth-grade science teacher Cecilia Enama said the presentation was a great hands-on review for her students.“It’s one of the best programs I have seen in a long time,” she said. “If you see something, you may forget it, but if you do something, you are going to remember it.”The highlight of the day, hand down, is the group’s “matter monsters” experiment.By combining types of polyurethane, the students got to observe and create a shocking, colorful reaction.And the foam it produces hardens almost instantly, giving the students a souvenir to take home.“It’s truly our goal to try to support what the teachers are doing in their curriculum and try to amp it up. We can bring the mess, we can clean up the mess, and you don’t have to worry about it,” she said.