POCATELLO - Idaho State University's Physics Department and the Idaho Museum of Natural History combined their efforts on Saturday to teach children about how physics helps Santa Claus get his job done.

"The point of today's class is to give the kids some understanding of (Isaac) Newton's laws of physics and how they apply to some of the toys under the tree and how they might apply to Santa," said Rebecca Thorne-Ferrel, education manager for the museum.

They even tried to help the children understand that Santa Claus has to use the laws of physics and that they may even be his best friends, Thorne-Ferrel said. One experiment showed the students the principles behind an object at rest remaining so and an object's response when force is applied.

"We put Santa's cookies on a plate and showed them how the cookies remained at rest until we pulled the table cloth out, applying force, and the cookies were no longer at rest," Thorne-Ferrel said.

Saturday's class was just one of many educational programs the museum offers throughout the year.

A combined effort with ISU's Physics Department typically happens one Saturday every other month. The next partnership between the two university entities will be "Phreaky Phrozen Physics" on Jan. 10 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

"Those programs are usually geared toward children in the third to fifth grades," Thorne-Ferrel said.

The physics programs are typically more costly than the average museum class because of the materials needed. They run $20 per child for each program.

Thorne-Ferrel said the basic mission of most museums is educational, but in the case of science-related museums, such as the Idaho Museum of Natural History, it can also be part of the publication arm of a particular discipline.

"It takes the work that science is doing and makes it accessible to everyone," she said.

To that end, the Idaho Museum of Natural History works to create educational opportunities.

Thorne-Ferrel said there is a diversity of educational programs with an equal diversity of cost to attend and ages for which they are geared. For the most current programs offered, Thorne-Ferrel suggest checking the museum's Web site at imnh.isu.edu.

"People should also check often because it is frequently updated," she said.