January 2010 Discover.ed
New Year, New Challenge!
Coming this January, Imagination Station is excited to announce our Rubber Band Car Challenge. We are challenging classrooms to create cars that can travel the furthest distance and look cool doing it.
This challenge will encourage your class to stretch the limits of science with rubber bands. We encourage you to join us for a special Rubber Band Car Challenge to help kick off the opening of our newest exhibit, Energy Factory. In Energy Factory, your students can explore hands-on exhibits that make understanding energy production and consumption fun! When researching and developing alternative energy vehicles and generators, mechanical engineers experiment with harnessing potential energy from a variety of sources like wind, sun, water and bio-fuels and converting that energy to kinetic energy, which can power a car or light a house.
The Rubber Band Car Challenge is designed to help build excitement in the classroom about energy. In addition to the Rubber Band Car Challenge, we are including many different activities designed to appeal to students of all ages, abilities and interests. These are easily adaptable across the curriculum from kindergarten to high school. Some investigations can be performed individually, while others foster cooperative team skills. The time and the length of the investigations may vary from 15 minutes to an entire week of fun – it is completely up to you!
We will announce the winning classroom in March. They will receive an Extreme Science Demonstration for their whole school!
We will be mailing out Rubber Band Car kits to selected classrooms within the region throughout January. If your classroom does not receive a Rubber Band Car kit in the mail, all activities and challenge details will be available on-line at www.imaginationstationtoledo.org, after January 15, 2009.
Activity
Spinning Around
This is just one of the fun explorations provided in the Rubber Band Car kit. How many scientific principles can your students explore using a rubber band?
How can a rubber band provide lift?
What You Need (per student)
- 4 rubber bands
- 2 foam or plastic drinking cups
- Tape
What To Do
- Link the rubber bands together to form a “string” of rubber bands.
- Place the two cups bottom to bottom and tape them together securely by wrapping tape along the seam.
- Wind the entire rubber band string around the taped seam, stretching the rubber bands as you go.
- Your launch technique will improve with practice.
What happens? Do the cups take longer to reach the ground than if you simply dropped them? Try winding more or less tightly. How does this affect its flight? Why? What happens to the cups when they land? Try other types of drinking cups and compare results.
What’s Going On?
Many forces act on the cups when they are launched by the rubber bands. Gravity pulls the cups to the ground. The rubber bands propel the cups forward into the air. Stretching the rubber bands as you wind them around the cups provides spin to the cups. This spinning movement creates a force that helps keep the cups aloft. This force plays a role in making a curve ball curve.
Coming Soon!!! Animation! featuring Cartoon Network
Opening January 30, 2010, your class will have the opportunity to discover the science of cartoons and animation. The artists in your class will become inspired to pursue the scientific side of their craft, while the budding scientists will see the importance of art and creativity in their field. Either way- everyone will have a great time while learning!
Animation includes six thematic areas:
HISTORY
Learn about early animation, animation principles, and how apparent motion makes animation possible−when many single images flash in front of the eye in quick succession, the brain registers these single images as a moving image.
ANIMATION STUDIO
Explore the process of animation and story creation with a variety of Cartoon Network characters.
ART IN MOTION
Discover why art and math are important in the creation of characters, motion, and change with the help of the characters from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.
SCIENCE LABORATORY
Explore the science and technology that make animation possible in Dexter’s Laboratory.
SOUND AND STAGE
Explore the principles of sound and phonetics with the Kids Next Door.
CARTOON MUSEUM
Check out clips of famous animations, unique artifacts, nostalgic toys, and other fun, pop-culture objects surrounded by beloved, classic Hanna-Barbera characters.
Outreach Programs
Alternative energy has become an increasingly important topic in this country and around the world. The Imagination Station has created a Workshop on Wheels (WOW) which will help students explore the concepts of potential and kinetic energy and the use of sunlight for power. Students will also gain an understanding of how changes in our environment affect the people, plants and animals that inhabit the earth, how we can combine the use of nature and technology to create energy and how energy is transformed from one form to another. Students will also discover what changes they can make to help their environment and protect the earth. For more information regarding this WOW, or any other outreach program Imagination Station offers please contact Jamie Pafford at 419-244-2674 ext. 107
Coming Events
SPECIAL NOTE: We are OPEN on Monday, December 28!
Monday, December 28
Ice Carving Demonstrations
World Champion Ice Carver, Chad Hartson, will be demonstrating his craft all afternoon inside the Science Center. Watch as he uses chainsaws, tools and heat to create stunning ice sculptures out of purified ice blocks. Try your own hand at sculpting in Science Studio as you fuse blocks of ice together to create towering sculptures. Bring your camera because these creations are tough to take home.
11:00am – 4:00pm
Tuesday, December 29
Face Painting
Deana Coupar with Spotlight Faces, will be on hand turning clean little faces into fantasy canvases. Her beautiful face painting techniques make an ordinary Tuesday something special, and it all comes off with soap and water. She’ll also be applying airbrush tattoos to those who dare to wear them. To see samples of Deana’s art, click on the link above.
11:00am – 4:00pm
December 26-January 31
Cool Holiday Science
Imagination Station will be filled with exciting activities and events throughout the long holiday week. We’ll be having fun with everything icy in Science Studio!
All week long we’ll be creating Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream, assembled with the traditional ingredients (milk, cream and sugar), but we make it instantly by adding a dash of Liquid Nitrogen which is a bitterly cold -320 degrees F. This freezes the ingredients immediately and gives visitors a tasty ‘scientific’ treat. We’ll also be constructing Crystal Castles. These take a little while to grow but we’ve been growing them all month long and we’ve created a beautiful crystal garden throughout the Studio. We invite you to share in the experience and add your special touch. It wouldn’t be December in the Midwest without snow, but since we can’t always count on it, we’re making our own. Using a super-absorbent polymer that actually turns cold when it grows (called an exothermic reaction), we’ll be making piles of InstaSnow all week long. It’s what they use on movie sets.
Little KIDSPACE Science Studio (for Kids 5 and under)
Science Story Time Winter Schedule
Don’t miss our weekly activity in the Little KIDSPACE Science Studio. A trained team member will read an exciting, interactive story to your child and then everyone gets a chance to complete a fun activity to take home and display proudly! This is a great new addition to your child’s Imagination Station experience.
December 22-27: Following Recipes
Cook-A-Doodle-Doo by Janet Stevens
Carefully following a recipe, kids dig their hands into science to create Imagination Station’s favorite fun, gooey substance – SLIME!
December 29-January 3: Exploring Signs
Red Light, Green Light by Anastasia Suen
It’s important for kids at an early age to get a basic understanding of the world around them to insure their safety and a lifelong appreciation for the rules of the road. During this activity kids will get the chance to explore traffic signs and what the colors in a traffic light represent.
January 5-10: Using Your Sense of Sight
Look! Look! Look! by Tana Hoban
Discover the whole by investigating only a piece of the puzzle. Children create their own puzzles to try and stump their parents.
January 12-17: Winter Exploration
Names for Snow by Judi K. Beach
Explore colors by mixing them together and creating your own chromatography snowflake.
January 19-24: Animal Sounds
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle
Kids will explore exotic animal sounds and faces. They’ll create masks and act as their favorite animal.
January 26-31: Number, Numbers
Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra
Explore a fun counting story and create your own alligator puppet.
Imagination Station is located on the downtown Toledo riverfront at One Discovery Way, Toledo, Ohio 43604 www.imaginationstationtoledo.org