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Aeronautics
What makes an airplane stay in the sky? Learn about the principals of flight and how airplanes are engineered. Explore the properties of air, flight, and aviation through hands-on activities, including investigating the geometry of kites, experimenting with rotary wings, modeling Bernoulli’s principal of air flow, and making a flight plan. You will see how aeronautical engineers shape the airplane, its wing and tail so that it can lift itself off the ground and fly easily through the air. Then you will experiment with your own designs.
Grades: 3-6 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Astronomy: Super Stars
Take a quick tour of our solar system then on to the stars! This cosmic adventure starts with our own sun. Travel to planets and moons and explore their unique landscapes. Fly past the Oort Cloud and head toward Proxima Centauri, the next closest star. Tour blue stars, giant reds, brown dwarfs, and nebulas. During the journey you will make your own spectroscope, sun clock, and telescope to aid in your investigations.
Grades: 1-3 or 4-6 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Biodiversity: Life at the Extreme
Explore the amazing variety of life on earth through dissection, experiments, and scientific drawings. We will grow microbial colonies and investigate a drop of pond water under the microscope. Continuing through fungi and molds, examine the similarities and differences between these bizarre groups, and then make toaster mushroom and cheese pizza, impossible without these remarkable kingdoms.
Grades: 4-6 or 6-8 (Classroom with a sink) Additional Materials Fee: $50
Chemistry Kitchen
Turn your refrigerator into a laboratory as you use household products to investigate elements and compounds. Experiment with chromatography to separate inks, cabbage juice to determine if a substance is acidic or basic, and instruments to accurately measure solids and liquids. Explore the world of atoms, bonds, solutions, and phases as you build your own molecule. Learn to think like a chemist as you analyze your findings.
Grades: 3-5 (Classroom with a sink) Additional Materials Fee: $25
Chemistry Experiments
Conduct fascinating experiments as you learn about elements, compounds, atoms, molecules, chemical bonds, and states of matter. Experiment with mixtures and identify unknown ingredients by their properties and reactions. Explore acid/base reactions and experiment with color, energy, and changes in matter.
Grades: 6-8 (Classroom with a sink) Additional Materials Fee: $25
Cool Wheels
Discover firsthand how engineering principles work as you design, build and race a CO2-powered race car. How fast will your car travel? The answer will depend on your design and ingenuity; the more aerodynamic the design, the faster the speed. Begin your undertaking by creating a plan using designer software. Next, construct your vehicle out of balsa wood and finish it with a custom paint job. When complete, your car must meet weight and design specifications. Clock your amazing speeds using a digital timer, analyze the data, and fine-tune your design to increase your car’s speed. (Combine this with Rocket Science for a full term class).
Grades: 6-8 Additional Materials Fee: $50
Creative Engineering
Did you ever have a really great idea for a toy, a tool, a vehicle, or some other invention? Explore the creative thinking and problem solving techniques needed to bring your ingenious ideas to reality. Identify specific problems or needs that could be solved by your inventions. Brainstorm innovative solutions and learn about basic engineering at the same time.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8
Explorations in Electronics
Investigate electronics in this hands-on introductory class. Experiment with basic electronic components using circuits, capacitors, and by building a simple radio transmitter. Learn to solder as you build circuits for an electronic siren and a flashing LED robot! You’ll explore electronics in your everyday world with a take-home digital multimeter to measure voltage, current, and resistance. In all of these activities you will develop your troubleshooting ability, one of the most important tricks of the trade for any future electronics engineer.
Grades: 5-8 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Forensic Science: Who Done It Crime Solving
A mysterious crime, an unidentified victim and no suspects – but wait! Whose footprint is this? Could that piece of fabric be a clue? Learn the scientific techniques used to investigate crimes. You will examine a mock crime scene for clues on how the crime was committed and learn ways to identify the victim and possible suspects. Analyze blood spatters, collect samples for examination and chemical analysis, explore the intricacies of fingerprinting, and be introduced to the science of genetics and DNA forensics. Use the scientific method and deductive reasoning to evaluate motive and opportunity and then, in teams, ultimately solve the crime.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8 (Classroom with a sink) Additional Materials Fee: $25
Hey, There’s Fungus Among Us!
In this class you will explore the amazing variety of life on earth through observations, experiments, and dissection. Investigations will cover bacteria, protists, the animal kingdom, parasites, and other bizarre life forms, fungi, and plants. Discover what leads to such biodiversity and the inter connectedness of life on earth.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8 (Classroom with a sink)
Lego Physics: Introduction
Become an expert Lego builder as you learn the principles of physics and engineering. Explore concepts such as balance and symmetry, acceleration and inertia, and shape and strength as you construct your Lego project. You will build bridges and other devices using gears and motors to add movement. Learn how simple machines like levers, pulleys, and gears are used in everyday life and in your Lego projects.
Grades: 2-5
Lego Physics Level I: Gears & Cams
How tall can a tower rise? How far can a bridge span? Can you build a tower three times taller by using three times the amount of materials? Find out the answers to these questions as you discover how physics principles are put to practical use. Using Lego building components, you will investigate structural designs and employ gears, cams, and pendulums to explore kinetics and store energy.
Grades: 3-6
Lego Physics Level II: Motors & Movement
Learn more about gears and stored energy by putting the principles of physics to work. With the addition of electric motors, you will build and improve a motorized crane, a “Tug-Bot,” and steerable car. You will investigate the fundamentals of robotic development while constructing and operating Lego components. Finally, you will use acceleration, velocity, and electric motors to create truly sophisticated projects. In this advanced class you can choose a project of your own or work on challenges suggested by the instructor.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8
Marine Biology
This class explores the behavior and biology of marine animals through a variety of activities which include dissecting a squid and a close examination of intertidal invertebrates to study their anatomy and physiology. You will examine preserved specimens of animals found in tidal pools and be able to identify them the next time you go to the coast. In-class activities will teach you about the behavior and biology of whales and other marine mammals.
Grades: 4-6 or 6-8 (Classroom with a sink, DVD/VCR/TV)
Additional Materials Fee: $25
Microbiology
Investigate the invisible world of microorganisms in this introduction to microbiology. You will look at the diversity of bacteria and how it occurs. Then learn to identify the different forms of microorganisms by observing colonies under a microscope and by staining techniques. Grow your own culture from milk and count and identify the bacterial communities within. Use your scientific skills to conduct experiments to test the effects of various disinfectants on bacterial growth.
Grades: 4-6 or 6-8 (Classroom with a sink) Additional Materials Fee: $50
Robots in Science Class
Hire a robot as a lab assistant. Using Vernier sensors and Lego Mindstorm robots, you will learn the latest in lab technology as you conduct a variety of inquiry-based science labs. The class begins with measuring temperature through evaporation while being introduced to scientific process and robotic skills. You will build and program the robots to carry out data collection and automation. Then use the data logging capability to graph and analyze your data. Further experiments could be conducted in acid rain, soil testing, water quality, and UV lighting.
Grades: 6-8 (Benchmark 8th)
Rocket Science
Turn your soda cans into Pop Can Hero Engines and liter-size bottles into Pop Bottle Rockets. Learn how rocket fuel can be improved by conducting antacid tablet races. Build a balloon powered rocket car or paper rockets with drinking straw propulsion. Discover the history of rocketry as well as some of the basic principles like Newton’s Third Law of Motion in this exciting and explosive class. (Combine with Cool Wheels for a full term class)
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Solar Power
Harness the sun’s energy to fuel your own solar project. Explore the science and principles of renewable energy. Draw sun diagrams, solar profiles, and then construct projects such as solar cookers, 3D sun path models, and toy cars. Learn how to utilize the energy from the sun to power your projects.
Grades 4-6 or 6-8 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Switched On To Electricity
Volts! Coulombs! Amperes!
In this class you can wave your handmade magic wand and mysteriously turn on a light bulb. Learn the difference in current between a round and long light bulb. Discover why spiral light bulbs are better for the environment. Get a charge out of the inner workings of batteries and learn the right hand rule of generators. Get wired up for a great time.
Grades: 2-5 or 6-8 Additional Materials Fee: $25
Wacky Weird World of Science
From the most bizarre to the most fascinating, explore the mysteries of our universe through science. Conduct hair-raising experiments with electricity and discover the three laws of motion in action through stomp rockets and air cannons. You will explore the chemistry of freaky, creepy dry ice and find out what’s up with the parasitic tapeworm and its totally gross relationship to its host. Don’t miss these amazing adventures in science!
Grades: 1-3 (Room with sink required) Additional Materials Fee: $25
World’s Greatest Inventions
From the wheels to the computer, you will learn how creative thinkers made ground breaking products, and how early inventions like transistors laid the groundwork for modern technology like laptops and iPods. You will investigate how money and even the number zero were invented. As you dive into the thinking behind these inventions, you will learn about design, engineering, and the evolution of modern science.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8
Instructors-
Theresa Alexander
- Annie Corbett
- Lindsey Dotson
- Richard Duncan
- Stephanie English
- Candace Gossen
- Soenke Hollstein
- Scott Isler
- Eileen Kane
- Kim Karper
- Jeannie London
- Dawn Nilson
- Roger Weber
- Veronica Zonick
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