Explorit to be featured on Girl Scout cookie boxes

If you see something familiar on next year’s Girl Scout cookie packages, you won’t be dreaming. You’ll be looking at images of Explorit.
 
The Girl Scouts Heart of Central California will photograph scouts at Explorit this week to illustrate promotional materials, including next year's cookie boxes. The local council will be highlighting math and science careers during 2010, so Explorit seemed an ideal location for the photo session.
 
Explorit jumped at the opportunity. In Girl Scouting and at Explorit, a future without math and science just doesn't add up.
 
"Girl Scouts ages 5 through 17 and their families are developing and building on an appreciation for math, science, and technology," according to www.girlsscouts.org. "They are finding that knowledge in these three fields can open doors to tons of exciting possibilities."
 
The online message continues to mirror Explorit philosophy:
 
“Today, innovative hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math
strengthen the natural aptitudes of girls and acquaint them with new career options and tools for future independence.”
 
Both the Scouting organization and Explorit would like to see more women entering math and science fields, says Lou Ziskind, Explorit’s executive director and a former executive with Girl Scouts in Bakersfield.
 
“From founder Juliette Low to the present, Girl Scouting has challenged conventional ideas about what girls should do,” Ziskind says. “We certainly support that in the world of science.”
 
Incidentally, Explorit offers 11 programs to Scout troops through the Heart of Central California council. They range in topic from “My Body” for Brownies to “Math Whiz” for Juniors and are held at Explorit Nature Center, formerly called our Mace Park Branch. Two of the programs are camp-ins, in which the girls will spend the night with their leaders and our staff in Explorit’s main site, with access to two floors of science exhibitions and activities.
 
More information about the programs is available at http://www.tdogs.org. Scout groups – both boys and girls – are also welcome to book any Explorit program and can learn more by calling (530) 756-0191 or visiting http://www.explorit.org.
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Explorit’s new and very popular streambed table was the focus of attention last weekend, when we had Peggy Bowes from the Yolo Basin Foundation present a program on streams. It was the first of several Family Explorations related to the streambed table; watch for more to come.
 
What's a streambed table? It looks like an oversized bathtub, filled with 200 pounds of sand and flowing water. You can create different landscapes and watch how moving water changes their features over time. You can also build a dam and test it out. Kids consider it good messy fun. (But don’t worry, it’s in our Yocha-Dehe Wet Lab, where we have a sink for cleanup.)
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Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District has awarded a $5,000 grant to Explorit to sponsor an Air Pollution Activity Station in our “Science in Your World” program. Explorit appreciates the opportunity to work together to promote understanding of environmental issues that affect us all, says Kimberly Cox, the center’s director of development.
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Explorit Science Center is at 2801 Second St., Davis. New visiting hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, 2-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission is $4 general, free for ages 3 and under. For more information: (530) 756-0191 or http://www.explorit.org.