Three-year-old Micah Vortherms, with help from his dad, Greg, scooped up as many marbles as he could Saturday at Austin Public Library.

For the experiment, Michah was a spoonbilled bird gathering insects and putting them in his stomach, in this case: a plastic cup. Micah and his siblings, Grace, 10 and Sam, 7, were three of the more than 15 youngsters who had the chance to become birds for a few minutes on Saturday, using their own unique beaks — such as a spoonbill, pencilbill, forkbill, closepinbill and tapebill — to collect a variety of insects, which were represented by various items in trays.

At another table, Grace was a tapebill, catching sticker bugs, a marble bug, pipe cleaners bugs and a paper clip bug.

“[It’s a] very fun learning experience,” said their mother, Jodi Vortherms.

The experiment was part of the Saturday Science Experience, a program at the library hosted by the Science Mentoring Projects to expose children to scientific method.

Catherine Haslag, a chemistry faculty member at Riverland Community College, started Austin’s Science Fair Mentoring Program and is the project coordinator. She helped secure a grant in partnership with the library for the Saturday Science Experience to reach more children in the community than just the Science Fair Mentoring Project’s work at Neveln and Banfield elementary schools.

“This was designed to help reach more kids in the community,” Haslag said.

Children like Grace and Lukas Tapp, 8, are participating in this year’s STEAM Expo, so Saturday was a chance to learn the scientific method as they work toward the project.

The Saturday Science Experiences started in November and are held once a month with the final one to be held in February, and that one will target children participating in the STEAM Expo science fair.

All others have been open to the community, and while they target children in grades three to six, Haslag said it’s never too early to expose youngsters to science. She was pleased to see some 5-year-olds attending Saturday’s session.

“Honestly, it’s never too early for any kid to start understanding the scientific process,” Haslag said.

Lukas has attended each, and his mom, Kelly, said it’s helped him learn as he prepares for the STEAM Expo.

“It helps him kind of see what the process is,” said Kelly, who attended with her husband, Norman.

The couple also brought their son, Liam, 5, to his first Saturday Science Experience, and Kelly, an I.J. Holton Intermediate School teacher, touted the event for being good for all ages. The day exposed Liam to science, which was good since Kelly described him as a hands-on kid.

“This is the first one he’s been to and he loves it,” she said.

Each week, the youngsters cover a different part of the scientific method. The youngsters formed hypotheses at the first, they set up trials for an experiment at the second, and they collected data in experiment at Saturday’s event, which was titled “Collecting Data — Write It Down.”

Haslag recalled how her own love of science at a young age inspired her to give back through the Science Mentoring Project.

“I loved science as a kid,” Haslag said. “I was always the one taking stuff apart, trying to figure out why it worked, how it worked. I was thinking back and realized how many people supported me growing up, and I wanted to try to reach out and provide support to some of those kids.”

Not all parents are comfortable helping their children learn science, so the program gives children more opportunities.

“This was founded as a way to give back,” Haslag said.

On Saturday, Haslag walked the children through the scientific method and the process of running an experiment. Then Maria Anderson of the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center used Guka the owl to show children what they could learn from observing the animal. Anderson show the youngsters that Guka, a predator that eats meat, uses its sharp beak to tear apart its prey, which the raptor bird catches using its talons.

After learning a bit about some of birds’ different beaks and uses, Haslag talked to them about forming a hypothesis, such as: only forkbills and spoonbills will be able to pick up the marble bugs. Then the children put their hypotheses to the test with the experiment.

Kelly said it’s been beneficial to go to each Saturday Science Experience, as they talk through the scientific method step-by-step. She said she’d bring her kids back next year, and she hopes even more parents would attend.

“They’ve done a great job with this,” Kelly said. “I think it’s a very exciting opportunity for kids in our area to have.”

Haslag said she’s hoping to bring the Saturday Science Experiences back to the library again next school year.