She sits, hunched over the large silver bowl, carefully choosing her morsel. She lets it rest on her tongue, as her eyebrows furrow.

"It tastes like . . . popcorn," she says. "This is the space popcorn."The scene was repeated over and over again Friday at Kaysville's Windridge Elementary School, as fifth- and sixth-graders participated in a science enrichment project facilitated by students from Utah State University.

The popcorn was part of an earlier USU experiment by students in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's "Get Away Space" (GAS) program. Several bags of microwave popcorn were sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery (the same shuttle involved in John Glenn's historic return to space), to provide local schoolchildren with a hands-on look into the world of science.

"Our main objective was to get kids involved in space and science," said USU physics student Jason Sanders.

Sanders approached Grace Larsen, Windridge Elementary's assistant principal, with the idea of bringing the project to Kaysville. Larsen jumped at the chance, and teachers in both grades were equally supportive.

"The kids are really excited," said sixth-grade teacher Becky Bouvang. "They like anything unusual. So, when they get something like this, it's great. And it's great to have the college kids here. I think they're really good role models."

"I like science," said sixth-grader Kim Pratt. "It's neat. You get to get out of boring spelling for once."

"I like all the explosions," said Hillary Hallows.

A more reflective Mike Schultz commented, "I like science, probably because it lets you search for the answers to your questions and hypotheses."

The kids were surprisingly careful in their experiment, Sanders said.

Comparing the popcorn that had been in space with some which had not, they were able to utilize the scientific principles they had been learning in class. They formed hypotheses about whether the popcorn would taste, smell, weigh and pop differently, and then tested their hypotheses against the actual results.

"At first this was just a gee-whiz thing, something to get them excited. But then we found out that the popcorn that went up in space tasted different, smelled different, and popped differently. We found out that there was a bit more science involved than we initially thought."

USU's GAS program was designed to give undergraduate students at the university practical and research applications in science and engineering, said Arlynda Wright, also a physics student. It is an interdisciplinary program, which took off when GAS sent its first canister into space in 1982. Since then, it has flown more than 33 experiments aboard a number of space shuttles - more than any other university.

For the kids, just thinking about space travel was enough to send them into a frenzy.

"Who knows who's up in space right now?" Sanders asked

Hands shot up, and kids enthusiastically yelled their responses.

"John Glenn, the first man in space," one child said.

"That one 70-year-old guy," blurted another. "You know, the really, really old one."