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KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Kids got a hands-on experience with science Thursday morning.

The Adair County Public Library in Kirksville held a “Fire and Ice” science session as part of their summer reading program.

The event was hosted by Kansas City based company, Mad Science. Its owner, Dave Smythe showed demonstrations with air pressure such as blowing up a bag and balancing an egg in a flask. There was also experiments with dry ice such as shivering a quarter and making cool fog bubbles.

Smythe said he always wants the kids to get involved.

“I ask them questions and then I get them up to help me with some of the experiments. Any place where I can get a child up to help me with something, everybody in the audience is going to feel much more like they're part of it if one of the kids sitting around them is up there. Then they all want to be in it. So they are all paying attention to see when their next opportunity is to be up.”

Smythe also said his favorite part if the event is to make science fun so kids can learn it at the same time.

“You let them participate so they start to see themselves as someone who can do science instead of somebody who just watches it on TV. And so a lot of these kids are going to walk away thinking ‘I want to go home and do some of these experiments.’ And that's exactly what we are shooting for. We want these kids to know that science is something they can do and it's a lot of fun when you look for the opportunity to have fun with it.”

Today’s program was possible through a gift from the friends of Adair County Public Library. For more information on their other upcoming events, contact the library at 660-665-6038 or visit their website at http://www.youseemore.com/adaircpl