A Little Stardust, a Little Magic: How Hyla Senior Marshall Bonow Took Science to the Stage at Battle Point Observatory

By Denise Stoughton

There are plenty of reasons to spend any summer night looking up. This past Saturday, September 12, Bainbridge Island had another one: a local high-school senior who thinks quantum mechanics might go down a little easier with a dose of magic.

Hyla School senior and Battle Point Astronomical Association volunteer Marshall Bonow took the stage at Battle Point Observatory for The Magic of Science; an unusual combination of science talk and magic show that grew from two interests he has been pursuing since childhood.

For Bonow, magic came first. It began at a friend’s birthday party when he was in elementary school, where a magician had been hired to perform. Seven-year-old Bonow was enthralled. His
enthusiasm apparently followed him home, because his parents arranged magic lessons as his seventh-birthday gift.

His magic teacher, Justin, lived in New Jersey, not far from Bonow’s then-home in Philadelphia. The lessons stopped when Bonow’s family moved to Bainbridge Island, but during COVID, when he was eleven and Zoom had suddenly become part of everyday life, he decided to reconnect with his former teacher. The weekend lessons resumed online and have continued ever since.

Bonow can’t pinpoint the beginning of his interest in science quite as neatly, although he remembers a unit at Hyla Middle School called Light Journeys as particularly influential. The class explored astronomy, light and the structure of the universe. As his interest in science deepened, especially in physics, he noticed that science was finding its way into his magic lessons, too.

“The idea to combine magic and science arose naturally,” Bonow said. “As my interest in science grew, I found more and more of my illusions began incorporating scientific concepts.”

Last year, he decided to explore that connection more deliberately through an independent-study elective at Hyla. He developed new illusions, repurposed some favorites and worked on
something considerably harder than mastering an individual trick: figuring out how to make separate demonstrations fit together into a cohesive show.

The project culminated in Bonow’s first performance for an audience beyond family and friends. He admits he was nervous but says Hyla’s welcoming community made him feel supported.
After the performance, people came up to congratulate him and, more importantly, tell him about some of the things they had learned.

That mattered to Bonow, who has discovered that he loves teaching almost as much as learning. This past Saturday, he brought the idea to a larger audience at Battle Point Observatory, where some decidedly ambitious science is on the program. Quantum mechanics, anyone?

“I think many people hear those words and immediately think it is too complicated to understand,” Bonow said. “And while it is certainly on the cutting edge of science, that doesn’t mean it isn’t understandable by non-scientists.”

If you’re imagining the familiar science-show formula in which something appears to be magic before being revealed as chemistry or physics, Bonow is taking a different approach. He uses magic to help illustrate scientific ideas that might otherwise feel intimidating or inaccessible.

“My goal is to make learning about complex or difficult-to-understand concepts more fun and approachable by illustrating them with magic,” he explained. “I am using magic as a tool to explain the science.”

It was an intriguing premise for a Saturday night, but Bonow himself was an equally good reason to make the trip to Battle Point. Here is a high-school student taking two things he loves,
finding an unexpected connection between them, building an original program around the idea and then having the nerve to stand in front of his community and share it. That kind of initiative deserved an audience.

Battle Point Observatory gave him a fitting stage. Tucked into Battle Point Park, the observatory is one of Bainbridge Island’s treasures, but also one that many of us may drive past far more often than we walk inside. It offers something increasingly rare: a place where people of all ages can encounter astronomy and science firsthand, guided by people eager to share what they know.

For families with teenagers, The Magic of Science offers another possibility. Young people hear plenty from adults about following their interests, thinking creatively and trying something new. Sometimes it’s more compelling to simply watch another young person do it.

Bonow is already thinking about where his own interests might lead. “I love learning myself but also sharing all the coolness I learn with others,” he said. He would like to become a science
teacher or professor someday and can imagine magical demonstrations finding their way into his future lectures.

Perhaps the most appealing thing about his approach is that he isn’t promising to send everyone home having mastered quantum mechanics. He readily acknowledges how much he still has to learn and points out that science itself is constantly changing. Some questions remain unanswered because scientists don’t know the answers yet. For Bonow, that uncertainty isn’t a drawback. It’s part of what makes science exciting.

“I hope that people came away with more questions about science than before,” he said, “and I hope that those questions ignite a passion for science in each of them.”

On September 12, Bainbridge had a chance to encourage a young person who has followed his curiosity somewhere wonderfully unexpected. Some folks who attended might even have learned a little quantum mechanics along the way. For more information, visit: Battle Point Astronomical Association – Igniting passion for science through the lens of astronomy

Denise Stoughton is a Bainbridge Island writer and marketing professional. 

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