The Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School Auditorium buzzed Wednesday morning with the shouting of scientific terms: “inertia,” “energy” and “speed of light.”

Ed Metzger, who has been portraying Albert Einstein in a one-man show for more than 30 years, visited with students from Waverly-Shell Rock and St. Paul’s Lutheran schools in “Close Encounters with Einstein.”

Metzger’s appearance was sponsored by the Wartburg Artist Series, which is putting on his one-man show, “Einstein, the Practical Bohemian,” Thursday in Neumann Auditorium.

Metzger discussed noteworthy moments in Einstein’s life and his contributions to science, asking middle school students to raise their hands and answer questions throughout.

Metzger taught students lessons using the same items that spurred Einstein’s curiosity — a yo-yo, apple and magnet. Waverly-Shell Rock students learned about gravity, Einstein’s theory of relativity, E=MC², magnetic force, and light traveling at 186,000 miles per second.

“If he [Einstein] could take a yo-yo and turn it into something scientific, why can’t I?” Metzger said.

Metzger, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y, has appeared on stage, TV and films,  including alongside Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon” and as Theodore Roosevelt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” He has also developed a second show, portraying author Ernest Hemingway in “Hemingway: On the Edge.”

His first portrayal of “Close Encounters” was for a prep school — while performing at John Hopkins University 30 years ago — at the behest of an instructor who wanted students to become excited about science.

“I said, ‘I’m not a teacher. I’m an actor,’” Metzger remarked. “They told me, ‘You’ve got a yo-yo, and you’ve got an apple. You can put a show together.’”

“Someone said afterward, ‘If you develop this show, it will be in high demand,’” Metzger said. Corporations from Beckman Instruments to Kellogg’s now are among the sponsors of his show in schools.

Metzger began researching Einstein and writing the “Close Encounters” show with his wife, Laya Gelff Metzger, making sure it was something his audience could understand and enjoy.

“You want to bring a college professor in front of kids? Come on,” Metzger said. “I try to be the opposite.”

Since beginning his Einstein show, Metzger has adapted it to include lessons about traveling to Mars, the atom bomb, and photons.

However, his message has remained the same: to encourage curiosity, learning and dreams.

“When I was your age,” he told the students as Einstein, “I thought that curiosity would kill the cat. Now that I’m older, I think curiosity saved the cat.”