MOHAWK — Piece by piece, school teachers on Friday worked to combine tooth picks with modeling clay to create a ladder of sorts that would stretch as long as possible without toppling over.

Each teacher tried a different method, combining tooth picks alongside one another, while others structured them in a lattice formation in hopes of increasing the strength.

The exercise was one of several hands-on activities area educators were learning at a program organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Fulton and Montgomery counties.

Dozens of teachers gathered at Fulton-Montgomery Community College for the program, “Real Science for Real Kids.”

The initiative brought educators from Cornell University’s Nanobiotechnology Center together with area grade school teachers to explore a variety of techniques to excite children through basic activities that are fun yet provide important lessons on the impact of science on daily life.

Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-H program educator Shannon Dygert, the event’s organizer, said hands-on activities add excitement to lessons while boosting students’ learning.

Teachers learned a simple way to have students make putty out of borax and white glue — providing a lesson on how combining different ingredients produces different results.

The putty experiment offers lessons in the field of physical science while others focused on life science, like an exercise involving kitchen utensils and small food items.

Trying to pick up sunflower seeds, gum drops and Swedish fish candies with spoons or tongs can demonstrate the different types of beaks birds have to survive, said Amy Passero, a third-grade teacher at the Park Terrace Elementary School in Gloversville.

“It was really interesting because none of us realized what the life of a bird was,” Passero said. Depending on their beaks, birds can spend all day looking for something to eat, Passero said.

Ronald Gribben, a third-grade teacher at the Edinburg Common School, participated in exercises focusing on plankton and liquid crystals.

Gribben said some of the exercises are more specific than those he’s used in the classroom, and said the hands-on element is a critical part of teaching.

“The kids get far greater knowledge out of this if they can handle things and interact with them on a number of levels,” Gribben said.

Scientists from Cornell University’s Nanobiotechnology Center who played the role of teachers on Friday put together a lending library with kits that participants and any teachers can borrow for free.

The program tries to give teachers the tools that might foster a greater interest in the field of science, said Teresa Porri, a Cornell University graduate student who directed one of the workshops.

Porri said the hands-on exercises can spark interest among female students, considered less likely to enter the sciences simply because of stereotypical roles ingrained in society.

Porri said her concentration at Cornell University’s Nanobiotechnology Center focuses on finding new ways to detect diseases that attack plants by identifying reactions at the molecular level.

The emerging field also holds promise for improving medical implants, such as creating tiny compounds that could be used to add structure to artificial corneas and allow the eye to heal.

Porri said youngsters don’t have to find a career in science for the teacher development program to be beneficial.

“Even if they never go into it, a scientifically-literate population is important,” Porri said.

School teachers interested in learning more about teaching kits and resources available from Cornell University can find information on the Internet at http://www.nbtc.cornell.edu/education/kitlib/.