The best-laid plans often go awry... so how to program on the fly for a large group when that happens? My Monday Mayhem program is attended by a lot of school-age kids, including those who attend two separate day care summer camps. Planning for 80 takes some work and means that it is difficult to
It's Star Wars Day! I know that it's giving away my age, but I remember when the very first Star Wars movie came out. I watched it from a swing-set in the small, fenced-in playground at the foot of the giant screen of the drive-in movie theater. The playground was surrounded by the same heavy
There's no way that anyone in my area hasn't noticed all of the rain we've had lately, but it wasn't until I was returning home from work one night to discover the steps to and my porch covered in a carpet of wriggling, desperate, earthworms seeking refuge from the water, that I realized just
It's beginning to show signs of spring. Trees are budding. Insects are beginning fly and buzz about. I see turtles sunning at the edge of the lake. But before that -- It was cold. Really, really cold, for my part of the world. In a part of the country where freezes usually
Like most everyone in the country, I'm getting ready for the eclipse. The local science museum, about a mile away from my branch, will be hosting a viewing on the lawn on the day of the eclipse. But me?... I'll be driving wherever I have to go to see totality. I have my glasses (the
This week at the Depot Park, we braved threatening thunderstorms, rain, and high humidity to learn the dirt on soils! Using both fiction and non-fictions books, we introduced the topics of soil, dirt, and mud before studying different types of soil, modeling the concept of percolation, making model soil horizons, and mud painting. Over the
For the second time in as many years, I had the opportunity to participate in the Outdoor Classroom Trip for a local school district. This event has happened annually at the end of the school year for 11 years, and is run by the science teacher at Kathryn Winn Primary School, which is part of
During spring break this year, I tried a new program aimed specifically for 8-12 year olds. We met each afternoon for two hours to work on creating paper automata. I had a limit of 25 participants, and required pre-registration in order to attend. Registration started out slow, and about the time I began to get
Shapes, shapes, and more shapes. Circle, triangle, square, rectangle - it all starts of easy enough. Then it get a bit more complicated when you move from two dimensional to three dimensional - sphere, cylinder, pyramid, cube, prism. Then, before you know it, your tongue is in a knot, and you're totally confused.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute has done it again! They have developed another delicious educational experience to share with libraries and educators - Edible Rocks. Who would want to try to eat a rock? Just about everyone, when the "rocks" are chocolate bars, "Three Musketeers" (the candy, not the book or movie), "Nestle
