Magic sand is fun, but also demonstrates the difference between substances that repel and attract water.
In the basement of the Villager Shopping Center on Madison’s south side, eight children are hard at work trying to pick up tiny candy insects and other familiar small sweets meant to mimic seeds. They are wielding popsicle sticks banded together like tweezers to simulate bird beaks.
“I’m seeing a lot of worms and a lot of fish picked up,” says Celine O’Toole, who leads the activity at the UW Space Place. “What kinds of things were tough to get with this beak?”
A few kids shout, “Sprinkles!”
Their goal today is to answer the question “Can the shape of a bird’s beak affect what they can eat?” O’Toole is a first-time volunteer and a biology student at UW-Madison. She’s leading this day’s class as a requirement for her class “Engage Children in Science.” Part of her goal is to infuse the fun, hands-on activities often associated with the arts into science.
The experiment is a part of Saturday Science at the Space Place, a public education center that for the last 25 years has provided free science programs to the public. While the Space Place’s name sounds like it’s all about astronomy, it’s not. The center also hosts programs that focus on physics, biology, engineering, chemistry and other sciences. Saturday Science draws anywhere from a dozen to 70 attendees.
“For a while, we had to limit the attendance and say, ‘First 50 people get in,’” says outreach specialist Kay Kriewald, who’s been with the Space Place for 20 years. “We try to make it really hands-on, so the kids are involved in doing something [specific] and leave with a concept they learned.”
Kids might learn about hydrogen bonds by playing with “sticky water” and seeing water move up a string. They’ve done experiments with hydrophobic “magic sand” that stays dry in water, designed spaceships and model roller coasters. They’ve even made their own fireworks. “Anything that explodes is really popular,” Kriewald says with a laugh.
The Space Place works closely with surrounding community organizations like the Goodman South Library, the Urban League of Greater Madison and Centro Hispano, but its programs are open to anyone with scientific curiosity and families looking for a fun way to spend time together.
“About four times a year, we go out to different parks around the city and set up telescopes,and talk about what you can see in the night sky,” says Kriewald.
The grant- and university-funded facility offers professional exhibits, a classroom, a lecture room and a sky deck for stargazing. You don’t always see items like a diffuse X-ray spectrometer (it sorts X-rays by wavelength) and wide-field imaging survey polarimeter (it’s a kind of telescope) in a children’s exhibit, but here they are for kids to touch and learn about.
Kriewald says the center becomes more popular in the winter, when sports leagues end for the season. But it’s open throughout the year, providing more than 100 activities and lectures for over 10,000 visitors annually.
Saturday Science regular Henry Hill-Gorman is evidence that Space Place’s approach to science works. The 16-year-old has been coming since he was 6.
“When I was about 10 or 11,” he says, “I asked Kay for a job that I didn’t get paid for. I didn’t know what volunteering was.” He’s been volunteering every Saturday since.
He began by handing out project materials to the other children in his class. Ten years later, he’s running his own workshops. Just as he was taught at Space Place as a kid, Hill-Gorman enjoys teaching children “to lead with their inquiry and motivation to do the experiments.”
“I think it’s really cool that they’re coming here outside of their school, and they’re learning and they’re engaged,” Hill-Gorman says. “It’s a place where they can pursue their interests and have a sense of self-motivation.”
Upcoming programs at the Space Place include a build-your-own telescope workshop on Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. ($35, email kay@astro.wisc.edu to register); “Party With the Stars” on Jan. 15 at 7 p.m., an investigation of objects in the night sky with an indoor presentation followed by an outdoor telescope session; and the Saturday Science topic “Egg Bungee Jump” on Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. — the challenge is, “Can you make a bungee-jump so that an egg will stop before it hits the floor?” For more info and other upcoming programs, see spaceplace.wisc.edu.
