MOUNT VERNON — From toddlers to teens and adults, the Science Play-Space Initiative wants to bring people together to explore science and technology through play, to develop the natural curiosity in children and to foster human interaction through play.
To that end, on Wednesday and Thursday, several SPI volunteers, spearheaded by Rachel Garcia, organized and supervised a variety of science activities for children and families at home for the holidays. ThePlace@TheWoodward was the venue for the learning-through-play adventures.
Wednesday’s offerings included a plethora of little projects and experiments, from Magna-Tiles to mixing vinegar and baking soda, to inverted-perception goggles and brain structure. There was also a variation on the typical “memory game:” Participants used their senses of smell and hearing instead of the usual matching pictures on cards. Participants could also work with scientific equipment such as microscopes and check out marble mazes.
Dudley Thomas was a special guest scientist on Wednesday. Thomas, the director of Chemistry Laboratories at Kenyon College, engaged the children in making ice cream using liquid nitrogen. The children were excited to see the milk, eggs and sugar morph into ice cream in less than 10 minutes, said Nicole Meier Chang.
