Family Science Night Turns Up the Fun Factor
The New York Academy of Sciences and Children’s Aid Society engage children and parents in family-friendly science activities. Who said science and learning can’t be fun?
Published October 14, 2011
By Diana Friedman
Academy Contributor
Last night, The New York Academy of Sciences’ (the Academy’s) Education Initiative presented its first Family Science Night at the Children’s Aid Society’s Frederick Douglass Center. With the format of an on-the-spot science fair, the family-centric event encouraged children and their parents to stop at a variety of tables, each dedicated to a specific activity.
The Academy currently partners with the Children’s Aid Society in the Afterschool STEM Mentoring program in which the Center’s middle school students learn robotics, math, and science from young scientist volunteers.
Meghan Groome, Academy director, K-12 Education and Science & the City, reflects on her own experience doing “wacky” science experiments with her Dad: “Those early memories inspired me to think of science as something that was fun, creative, and ultimately led me to proclaim that I wanted to be a scientist. I had this idea as we were working with our partners at the Children’s Aid Society; why not bring the fun, hands-on science and math lessons that students’ get to experience in our Afterschool Mentoring program to siblings and families of our middle school participants?”
That idea blossomed into Family Science Night, where the activities ranged from creating balloon rockets to participating in a paper airplane lab. While the activities were science-based (for example, the balloon rocket activity touched on the concepts of energy, propulsion and thrust, and pressure), they were firmly grounded in kid-approved formats, featuring things that fly, pop, and explode.
The Fun of Science
Many of the activities at Family Science Night were adapted from Bring Science Home, a web-based initiative from Scientific American that offers engaging science activities parents and kids can do together, published on a weekly basis. The activities and associated videos, fun facts, and explanations are geared for kids ages six to 12. The Academy is pleased to serve as an educational advisor for Bring Science Home.
“As a parent, my goal in creating Bring Science Home was simple,” said Scientific American Editor-in-Chief Mariette DiChristina. “I wanted kids and adults to have fun exercising their curiosity and exploring science together with easy activities they can often do with common household items. After-school programs and schools can pull from Bring Science Home’s growing database of activities to create their own events celebrating the fun of science, such as The New York Academy of Science’s Family Science Night.”
Groome can’t imagine a better combination: families, young scientists, and thrilling hands-on activities that anyone can do at their kitchen table.
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