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Explorit Science Center Weekly Column
This page contains the material submitted to the local paper - The Davis Enterprise - for Explorit Science Center's news column published in that paper on Fridays.
Date: March 20, 2009
Big, small, Explorit encompasses it all this month From the whole of the universe to the smallest nano-speck, events this month at Explorit Science Center cover it all. First, a UC Davis research physicist will give a talk about telescopes at Saturday's meeting of the Davis Astronomy Club at Explorit's Mace Park Branch, 3141 Fifth St. The meeting is open to the public at no charge and begins at 7 p.m. Next up, March 28 is Nanotechnology Day at Explorit. Family-friendly activities from 1-4 p.m. will introduce visitors to what nano - a prefix meaning one-billionth - is all about. In one activity, visitors will work together to build a giant balloon model of a carbon nanotube. Real carbon nanotubes, which are 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair, have a unique cylindrical structure, extraordinary strength and unusual electrical properties that make them useful in electronics and materials science. • “Explorit Materials - Liquid Crystals” is a hands-on activity demonstrating that the way a material behaves on the macroscale is affected by its structure on the nanoscale. Visitors investigate the properties of a heat sensitive liquid crystal and make their own liquid crystal sensor to take home. • "Exploring Structures - Buckyballs" is a hands-on activity in which visitors fold up a precut shape to make a model of a buckyball. They learn that buckyballs are tiny, soccer ball-shaped molecules made of carbon, and they are exactly one nanometer across. Buckyballs are good lubricants because of their spherical shape. Their hollow structure could make them useful for delivering medicine in the future. • "Exploring Measurement - Human Body" is a hands-on activity in which visitors mark their height on a height chart and discover how tall they are in nanometers. They learn that being a billion nanometers tall sounds impressive, but it doesn't mean they're super tall: it means a nanometer is super small. Also, visitors can view a short video made by Davis High grad Patrick Bennett, now a PhD candidate in physics at UC Berkeley. With friends, he created “The Nano Song,” described online as “Everything you need to know about the wonders of nanotechnology... as a musical... with puppets.” You can whet your appetite for nanoscience by watching the video at http://www.youtube.com (just search for “Nano Song.”) Nanotechnology Day is an Explorit Family Exploration program sponsored by Rumsey Community Fund. These programs are free after paid admission to Explorit's main site, 2801 Second St. Admission is $4 general, free for ages 3 and under. _________________ Explorit is currently accepting registrations for Summer Science Camp 2009, weeklong sessions of day camp for students entering preschool (minimum age 4) through 5th grade. The camps run from 8:30 a.m. to noon for students entering grades 1 through 5; an extended-day option runs to 5 p.m. Camp for preschoolers and kindergartners runs from 8:30 - 11 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Prices range from $52 for the three-day-a-week camps to $197 a week for older kids who are also enrolled in Extended Day. Those are member prices; nonmembers pay about 15 percent more. Registration deadline for our random-placement lottery is April 17. For more information, visit www.explorit.org. _________________ |