Museum-goers get taste of science
Ellie Bell probably won’t remember much of her day at Dinosaurs & Disasters Family Science Day.
At 2 years old, she can’t yet say the word “fossil,” let alone connect the idea with the hulking skeletons in the Nebraska State Museum. Her big sister Alyssa, 5, might have better luck.
The girls’ mother, Angela, already sees a science streak in her oldest, and wants to keep feeding that interest.
“(I wanted to) expose them to it now so they can stick with it later,” she said.
Hence, the trip to the museum Saturday morning.
Only halfway through the six-hour event, more than 700 people had already streamed into the museum to visit hands-on science stations, said Kathy French, the museum’s education outreach coordinator.
More than 30 booths used gadgets and displays to explain how tsunami waves work, how coal is created, how fossils are uncovered and more.
The event covered the array of geosciences with an emphasis on natural disasters and climate changes -- whether in the time of the dinosaurs or in present day.
Visitors could climb into plastic tents to experience the greenhouse effect, or watch a swirling funnel cloud in a box that stood taller than a lot of the kids who stopped to take a look.
Children stuck their hands in a simulated dinosaur stomach to find -- surprisingly -- a pile of pebbles.
“Some critters swallowed stones to chew their food up,” explained Mary Anne Holmes, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who ran the booth.
The approaching storm didn’t seem to dampen attendance, but it did make for a more interesting meterology display.
A line of radar screens with blazing colors tracked the storm as it headed toward Lincoln.
Clint Rowe, UNL meterology professor, said sometimes those displays are pretty ho-hum if the weather is calm.
“Today, we’ve got something,” he said.
French said some parents have objected to the museum’s teaching of present-day global warming. But she said event organizers just explain the science behind it.
“We’re science -- we explain what we can because we have proof,” she said.
Philip Hanigan turned 10 years old Saturday, and said the event was a fun way to spend his birthday.
One of his favorite booths was the earthquake demonstration, where organizers make a noisy mini-earthquake.
“It was loud. That was like a 12.0,” Philip said.
Linda, his mother, said Dinosaurs & Disasters was a good option for a foul-weather Saturday.
“Too rainy and cold outside,” she said.
At 2 years old, she can’t yet say the word “fossil,” let alone connect the idea with the hulking skeletons in the Nebraska State Museum. Her big sister Alyssa, 5, might have better luck.
The girls’ mother, Angela, already sees a science streak in her oldest, and wants to keep feeding that interest.
“(I wanted to) expose them to it now so they can stick with it later,” she said.
Hence, the trip to the museum Saturday morning.
Only halfway through the six-hour event, more than 700 people had already streamed into the museum to visit hands-on science stations, said Kathy French, the museum’s education outreach coordinator.
More than 30 booths used gadgets and displays to explain how tsunami waves work, how coal is created, how fossils are uncovered and more.
The event covered the array of geosciences with an emphasis on natural disasters and climate changes -- whether in the time of the dinosaurs or in present day.
Visitors could climb into plastic tents to experience the greenhouse effect, or watch a swirling funnel cloud in a box that stood taller than a lot of the kids who stopped to take a look.
Children stuck their hands in a simulated dinosaur stomach to find -- surprisingly -- a pile of pebbles.
“Some critters swallowed stones to chew their food up,” explained Mary Anne Holmes, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who ran the booth.
The approaching storm didn’t seem to dampen attendance, but it did make for a more interesting meterology display.
A line of radar screens with blazing colors tracked the storm as it headed toward Lincoln.
Clint Rowe, UNL meterology professor, said sometimes those displays are pretty ho-hum if the weather is calm.
“Today, we’ve got something,” he said.
French said some parents have objected to the museum’s teaching of present-day global warming. But she said event organizers just explain the science behind it.
“We’re science -- we explain what we can because we have proof,” she said.
Philip Hanigan turned 10 years old Saturday, and said the event was a fun way to spend his birthday.
One of his favorite booths was the earthquake demonstration, where organizers make a noisy mini-earthquake.
“It was loud. That was like a 12.0,” Philip said.
Linda, his mother, said Dinosaurs & Disasters was a good option for a foul-weather Saturday.
“Too rainy and cold outside,” she said.
Copyright © 2002-2008 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.