MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Spark! Imagination and Science Center wants Morgantown area families to be a part of their 13th Annual Science Day.
The event will take place on Saturday, October 5, starting at 10 a.m., where dozens of hands-on science and artistic activities will be hosted until 1 p.m. Executive Director of the Spark! Imagination and Science Center Julie Bryan encourages families who want to learn about various engineering and science experiments with children aged 4 or older to come down and be a part of this interactive event.
“It’s a great day to come out and do hands-on science activities,” said Bryan. “We have all different sciences represented, we have neuroscience, robotics, engineering, and physics,” she said.
Over a dozen science, engineering, and artistic activities will be open for families who participate at the Spark! Imagination and Science Center Annual Science Day. This includes interactive weather experiments, hands-on engineering projects, and a separate art center with drawing and puppets for younger children. According to Bryan, there will be activities appropriate for all ages that are aimed to teach about the various ways science plays a role in our daily lives.
“All of our activities are hands-on,” said Bryan. “It’s made for kids 4 and up and their grownups, so anybody can come in and go from table to table doing different science experiments and science activities,” she said.
The Spark! Imagination and Science Center Science Day has been hosted since 2010 and has received positive feedback from families of younger children who are getting exposed to science experiments for the first time. According to Bryan, children who see the exhibits that display materials in motion, plus getting a chance to build things with their own hands, have been very receptive to the over a dozen activities that are normally hosted during Science Day.
“When you see that understanding happen, or especially when you see them apply something that you just talked about and you did something hands-on,” said Bryan. “And then they think, ‘Oh, this is something else that works that I saw one day,’ and that is always an amazing thing to see,” she said.
The goal for the Spark! Imagination and Science Center Science Day is to expose Morgantown area children to STEM-related activities before they get into high school. To encourage more interest in robotics, Morgantown Area Robotics will be in attendance, and volunteers from West Virginia University will also be on hand to help with kids participating in the experiments. For anyone wishing to do something interactive and informative on Saturday, Bryan encourages them to join them at the Mountaineer Mall starting at 10 a.m.
“You can come anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., there’s no registration or anything like that, and it’s just $5 per person,” Bryan said.