QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

Tommie Barfield Elementary School teachers Mabel Pena, Cheryl Reinke and Rebekah Cohrs are recpients of monetary grants provided by the Community Foundation of Collier County. The grants enable teachers to attend special training sessions or acquire materials they might need.

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It may seem mundane for a teacher to go to a seminar and come back with the knowledge that if you tap a shook-up soda can on its side before opening it, the liquid won’t gush in your face.

But, for Tommie Barfield Elementary teachers Cheryl Reinke and Mabel Pena, the revelation has practical scientific relevance.

When you tap the side of the can of regular soda (not the Aspartame-sweetened diet kind), explained the twosome, the air bubbles migrate to the top of the can.

Pop the tab, and only air escapes, Pena said.

Normally, shaking the unopened can of soda causes bubbles of carbon dioxide to line the inside walls of the can, Reinke said.

When the can is opened, the pressure in the can goes down and the volume of each bubble goes up (Boyle’s Law).

The quickly expanding bubbles force the liquid that rests above it out of the can.

Pena, colleague Reinke and fellow teacher Rebekah Cohrs are among a small group of Collier County teachers who recently were awarded Professional Development Grants by the district’s Education Foundation.

The purpose of the grants enable teachers to attend special training sessions or acquire materials they might need.

Science specialists Pena and Reinke have already made use of their grants, spending Tuesday and Wednesday training under Steve Spangler, who offers science “Hands-On Boot Camps” all over the country.

Cohrs, a second grade teacher at the school, specializes in literacy and guided reading, and will attend a seminar in early December.

She said she’s working towards a reading master’s degree, and that the seminar would be one of the stepping stones.

Principal Jory Westberry said an advantage of the program is that the teachers can impart new knowledge to their colleagues and students alike.

Grant applications are reviewed and scored by a committee in order to determine allocation of funding, according to a Community Foundation of Collier County release.

Grants run around $1,000 per teacher.