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Article for: The Davis Enterprise

Date: February 7, 2003

Author: Leslie Madsen

Contact: Tom Wickersham

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In its next exhibition, Explorit Science Center reaches back millenia to the birth of the earth with tomorrow's opening of "Written in Stone: The Story of Sand, Soil, and Rocks."

"We're using simple materials," said exhibits coordinator Karen Cebra, "but the hands-on activities they constitute are revelatory-they really show how the earth works."

While the exhibit's primary focus is on the processes that create sand, rocks, and soil, visitors also will learn about earthquakes, major landforms like mountains and volcanoes, and the geologic history of the planet. Through hands-on activities, children and adults alike can learn how the layers of the earth fold, explore how two types of waves generated by earthquakes travel differently through the ground, and discover how minerals are used in products people use every day.

Visitors may also conduct their own experiments on rock, sand, and soil. What happens when certain rocks, shells, coral or chalk are dunked in vinegar? Why do some rocks seem to absorb oil, while others fail to soak up any at all?

Young scientists who appreciate physics will enjoy constructing a replica natural arch. The more destructive-minded visitor can engineer buildings and test them in a miniature simulated earthquake.

"There's something for everyone in 'Written in Stone'," Cebra emphasized. "There's math, biology, physics, and chemistry-and it's all very accessible to a wide range of visitors."

Explorit is perhaps best-known for its innovative activities, and while the activities are certainly at the heart of "Written in Stone," they are almost upstaged by the some of the rock and mineral samples on display throughout the exhibit. One of the science center's best-kept secrets is its extensive collection of rocks, minerals, and sand, and many of those specimens are on display-from a tiny Devonian starfish fossilized in German shale to a stunningly beautiful chunk of Azurite.

Visitors are invited to pore over Explorit's collection of sand from around the world. Children may be astonished to learn that sand comes in all shapes and sizes, and that not all sand is made from rock. Magnifying lenses, a microscope and amazing photos of greatly magnified sand drive this point home.

Explorit has once again focused one section of the exhibit on the very youngest visitors. Kindergartners and scientists of a similar age or spirit will enjoy activities that show the earth changes over time. They can also shake a tube filled with sediment and observe the rocks, sand, and soil settle in turn. Perhaps the most popular activity in this section will be the messiest one, where visitors can craft new landscapes out of clay. Visitors can create a range of mountains and volcanoes, and then watch as other visitors change the landscape-just as natural forces shape the earth's surface through erosion and other processes.

Perhaps best of all, the exhibit is peppered with take-home activities that will help children retain some of the knowledge they gain in the exhibit. Visitors can create geologic clocks that illustrate the relative lengths of each period of earth's history, as well as drill a core sample from layers of clay, craft their own granite replicas, and make fossil rubbings and castings.

"Written in Stone" opens at 11 a.m. tomorrow and runs through April 5.

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