Local Events: Science and Tech Fest October 15th

Posted on by Deborah Bryan

A new festival will delight young science and tech fans downtown this weekend. Hands on demonstrations and activities designed for children from toddlers to eighth grade will  leave young learners with a desire to learn more about science, technology, engineering, math and space.  ortunately the Library has plenty of resources to help them continue to learn and experiment at home.

Science, Tech, and Spacescience-and-tech-fest

If your child loves science, technology, engineering and math — or you want to inspire that love in your littles — we’ll see you October 15.

Hands-on activities and demonstrations aimed at toddlers to eighth-graders will line the street, plus food trucks and other fun. Then spend the evening at Ad Astra Kansas Space Day on the Washburn University campus.

Explore virtual reality, experience stinky science, understand cooking chemistry and let your mind race to the stars as Visit Topeka teams up with local and regional STEM professionals to present this day of discovery.

Then at the Ad Astra Kansas Space celebration, there will be “Space Ice Cream” demonstrations, telescope displays, flight demos, paper rockets, space suits on display, laser and light demos, and a chance to look through the telescope at the Crane Observatory.

Extend the Experiencescience-and-tech-book-collage

The Library has  so many fun books with science experiments that you and your children can enjoy together.
For example, Kitchen Science Lab for Kids by Liz Lee Heinecke has 52 family-friendly experiments that you can do using things you find around the house – such as making Frankenworms from baking soda and vinegar.
There are also several books that explore technology from our children’s collection – including Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 20 Projects by Kathy Ceceri, in which you can learn how to make a model robot hand.
Budding engineers would enjoy Build It: Invent New Structures and Contraptions by Tammy Enz, which includes instructions for making several interesting and educational projects, some simple and some complex.
From the many math books that the Library has for kids, families are really enjoying Bedtime Math and Bedtime Math 2 by Laura Overdeck.  She presents kid friendly math problems with fun topics like jalapeños and submarines, making them so interesting that kids hardly realize that they’re doing math.
For those enthusiastic about outer space and space exploration, the Library has hundreds of books  and DVDs that you could explore, including Beyond the Solar System by Mary Kay Carson.

 

 

Some of my many roles at the Library include: Tax Form guru, Collectibles collection promoter, Inspirational fiction evangelist, Adult Literacy promoter, Book Group in a Bag cheerleader, So Many Books book discussion group leader, Reader's Advisor and many more.