Museum’s hands-on program helps local kids study science
Jan 10, 2013 | 365 views | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Students in the Museum of Moab’s science club build edible Mars rovers. Courtesy photo
Students in the Museum of Moab’s science club build edible Mars rovers. Courtesy photo
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Grand County second- and third-graders with the BEACON after-school program have been reaching for the stars at the Museum of Moab. Studying earth, space, planets, rockets and rovers, kids in the museum’s “Rock-it Science Club” learned last fall about being geologists, scientists and astronauts.

Recently, the young scientists, amid cheers from the group, set off vertical balloon rockets into the high ceilings of the museum entrance. The experiment taught the kids about the principles of thrust and drag and helped them design other projects, such as hovercrafts, rocket cars, straw rockets and paper airplanes, said Andrea Stoughton, the museum’s education director.

“Younger kids aren’t always involved in advanced geology, chemistry and physics,” Stoughton said. “This was an opportunity to introduce some basic principles of rocket science and experimental procedures to follow to become good scientists. In the process, we had fun, were surprised and sometimes disappointed. That’s part of experimenting and in the process of trying to making things explode.”

Celebrating NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars last year, each child created an edible Mars Rover. They also launched three rockets at the city ball fields.

“The club ignited an excitement and curiosity in scientific exploration, for they will be our future space adventurers,” Stoughton said.

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