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News from the Chair
The holidays are a time for giving thanks, making wishes, and experiencing magical moments. Our Children's Science Center Team is no different. We are so very grateful and give heartfelt thanks to the many donors and hundreds of volunteers who gave their time, talents and funds to our cause this past year. This museum is not only being built for kids by kids, but is also being built for the community by the community!
We have experienced many magical moments this season: children's smiles and eyes alit with hands on activities at our wind power exhibit at The Enchanted Forest festival and cheering on our fabulous float in the Reston Holiday Parade.
Most of all, we share the dream and wish to give the half million children in our area a children's museum and fill the void as the largest metro area in the United States without one. Although this gift is a bit too large for Santa to bring to Northern Virginia this year, we know that through the continued dedication, enthusiasm and sheer love for the community and its children, we will make our dream a reality together. Thank you to each and every one of our supporters for another year of important work and great progress towards fulfilling our dream. Happy Holidays!
Yours,
Nene Spivy
Chair, Board of Directors |
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2011 Imagine Their Future Virtual Tours
As part of our continued outreach to the community, you are invited to attend an, "Imagine the Future" event where you will receive a one-hour virtual tour of the museum. Our virtual tours will be held in Reston from 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. on January 20, February 2 and March 15.
If you would like to join a tour, please email Imagine@TheChildrensScienceCenter.org. |
The Children's Science Center joined the Reston Holiday Parade
The Children's Science Center made an appearance in the 19th Annual Reston Holiday Parade with a float that was built for kids by kids, like the Science Center itself will be. Over a dozen children, ages 5 to 15, along with an equal number of adults, designed and built our 22-foot-long parade float, featuring a volcano, a rocket and a chemistry lab.  Six children proudly rode on the float in front of thousands of spectators in the Reston Town Center (as well as a television audience) while parade announcers shared information about our efforts to build The Children's Science Center. |
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Enchanted Forest Provides Opportunities to Learn
The Children's Science Center Room at the Junior League of Northern Virginia's 10th Annual The Enchanted Forest provided our new "Museum without Walls" exhibit "Energy for Today: Renewable Wind Power" with its second run of the year on November 20 and 21. The Enchanted Forest is a winter-themed festival designed for the entire family. Nearly 250 children filed into the Children's Science Center Room to build, crank, and spin the components of our latest interactive science exhibit, designed to introduce children to the concept of clean, alternative wind energy.
"Energy for Today: Renewable Wind Power," showcases the potential of wind power, wind turbines, and the fundamentals behind this technology, providing children of all ages the opportunity to explore and participate. Visitors begin their experience by designing their own "lung-powered" pinwheels that illustrate the basic, rudimentary beginnings of our sleek, modern-day wind-generating turbines. Then children have the opportunity to engineer their own LegoŽ wind turbines in order explore the various components that form these structures. Next, a handheld crank generator demonstrates the physical exertion needed to power the turbine's generator in order to produce enough electricity to illuminate a light bulb. Finally, all of these concepts-the components, physical exertion, and production of the generator-are brought together with a demonstration using our hands-on model turbines.
 In addition to these activities, The Children's Science Center Room at The Enchanted Forest included an opportunity for visitors to construct their own wind socks. Engineers use wind socks to determine ideal locations for wind farms (large plots of land with many wind turbines producing electricity by harnessing the wind's power). The simple technology of wind socks aid engineers in analyzing the direction of the wind, its speed, and consistency.
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NEW Museum without Walls Exhibit
Fun Family Event at the National Building Museum
Look for a new "Museum without Walls" exhibit at the Discover Engineering Family Day Festival at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The annual festival features dozens of hands-on activities provided by local engineering chapters and national organizations.
Each year at the start of Engineers' Week, the impressive main hall of the National Building Museum is taken over by thousands of children of all ages experiencing the excitement of engineering . . . not to mention gumdrops, toothpicks, and slime! The 2010 event brought in 5,340 visitors to the festival! Following the success of the Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Expo on the National Mall in October 2010, the 2011 Discover Engineering Family Day is sure to bring in large numbers as well.
Join the Children's Science Center's "Museum without Walls" as we present an engaging, hands-on, engineering-themed exhibit for our visitors on February 19, 2011. Volunteers will be needed from 9:30 a.m to 5:00 p.m. To help, contact MuseumWithoutWalls@theChildrensScienceCenter.org |
Planning our Future Museum
 This fall has been a very exciting time of planning the future Children's Science Center. We have engaged Northstar Museums, a firm whose expert consultants specialize in children's museum planning. Northstar is enabling us to develop a comprehensive package of the detailed business, capital and operating plans, budgets and schedules needed to open the museum. This package will be shared with major community stakeholders whose support is needed to secure our site and funding.
Northstar is also working with us on preliminary conceptual and experience planning, helping us to explore what types of exhibits will be inside the Children's Science Center. They brought a professional children's museum exhibit planner and designer to facilitate two design charettes in early November. Because our design philosophy is for the museum to be created For Kids, By Kids, we are including children in every step of the design process, from start up exhibit planning to ongoing design assessments after the doors open. Thus, we gathered a small group of girls and boys aged 6-10 for a fun, interactive session where the kids used their imaginations to help conceive the types of interactive exhibits that would be most appealing to them. We used the outputs from the kids' charette to feed into a second design charette among our board members to create the foundational elements of our preliminary Conceptual Exhibit Plan. As a result of our planning efforts, we expect to have many more exciting details about the future museum to share with the community in 2011!
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Challenge: Marbled Holiday Wrapping Paper
Use a Surfactant to make your own gift wrap.
What You Need:
- Paper
- Shaving Cream (use pepperment scented if you want your paper to smell like Candy Canes!)
- Food color or Paints
- Silverware
- Shallow Pan large enough to cover your paper
- Squeegee or Paper Towels
What You Do:
- Spread a thin layer of shaving cream at the bottom of the pan using a spatula or your fingers
- Dot the surface of the saving cream with food coloring or paint
- Run the tines of a fork through the colors to make a wavy pattern. Don't get too enthusiastic or the colors will be distorted.
- Lay your paper over the colored layer in the pan. Smooth the paper out over the shaving cream.
- Remove the paper and either wipe off with a squeegee using several passes or wipe off with paper towels.
- Allow your paper to dry. If it curls, have an adult iron it LOW setting.
- Wrap your gifts!
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| The Children's Science Center is an interactive hands-on museum being planned for Northern Virginia. Our mission is to excite children about science, technology, engineering, and math by making these subjects fun and enabling children to learn through play. For more information, visit www.TheChildrensScienceCenter.org. Please direct all inquiries to The Children's Science Center, 485 Spring Park Place Suite 500, Herndon VA 20170.
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