Science Programs-on-Wheels

Programs

60 minutes, maximum 30 students.

ABC: Arches, Bridges, and Construction*

Grades 5–8

Work in teams to build arches, a suspension bridge and a truss bridge you can actually crawl across. Learn what makes bridges work - anchors, beams and compression. Explore the concepts of live load, dead load and environmental stress.

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Animal Identification: The Science of Skulls

Grades 4-8

Who's there? Use clues such as skull size, shape, type and number of teeth and eye placement to identify a variety of Ohio mammals using their skulls and a dichotomous key. The activities within this program provide a great introduction to the science of classification. Strong reading skills are necessary for this program. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Awesome Animal Adaptations

Grades 1–8

Explore animal habitats and adaptations. Meet and touch live animals that may include a bat, snake, box turtle, salamander, frog, and/or hissing cockroaches. Learn about and handle unique items from our collections such as baleen, caribou fur, and armadillo armor. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Bats

Grades 1–8

Walk like a bat! Fly like a bat! Meet a live native bat! Explore echolocation to understand how it works and hear what it sounds like. Learn about these truly amazing yet misunderstood animals through a slide presentation, game, artifacts and more. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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The Best of Biology

Grades 7-12

Apply the concepts of adaptation, taxonomy, and genetics to the natural world. Gain hands-on practice interpreting and creating phylogenetic trees or cladograms. Then, investigate phenotypes and genotypes of an assortment of bird specimens from museum collections.

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Chemistry in Your Hands

Grades 4-7

Heat it up and cool it down! See and feel the evidence of physical versus chemical change. Watch your experiments change color as you create acids and bases. Learn chemistry basics and practice lab safety. Beware — the results you take home may be slimy!

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Coral: A Colorful Community

Grades 1–3

Biodiversity is the name of the game when it comes to the coral reef, “rainforest of the sea!” Learn all about the organisms that build the reef. Touch real coral skeletons and learn how coral polyps feed and protect themselves. Explore the interconnectedness of the many organisms who make up the coral reef community through puppet play time and a symbiosis puzzle. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Digging for Dinosaurs*

Grades 1–4

Uncover fossils on a mock paleontological dinosaur dig. Discuss Cincinnati’s world-famous Ordovician fossils, learn how fossils are formed and unearth how to differentiate them from rock. Touchable fossils from dinosaurs including Allosaurus, Triceratops, Iguanodon and more – a junior paleontologist’s dream! Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Engineer It!

Grades 1-4

Explore engineering using step-by-step instructions and colorful construction kits. Solve problems by building working belt-driven machines. Utilizing the engineering design process, improve your inventions by conquering friction and making tension work for you.

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Evolution of Diversity: A History of Earth's Changes*

Grades 3-8

Investigate how land masses moved and shifted through time. Explore a timeline of major species evolution and extinction events. Learn about local ancient creatures, the habitat in which they lived and their adaptations. Examine an Ordovician period diorama and fossil specimens from museum collections. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Experimenting with Physical Science

Grades 3-7

What shapes do bubbles take? Does sound vibrate? Explore bubbles, sound, electricity, magnets, motion, light, color, mirrors and optical illusions in this inquiry-based program. Create hypotheses, perform experiments, draw conclusions and share your discoveries. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Fantastic Flora

Grades 1-3

Animals aren't the only ones with amazing adaptations: plants are masters of survival as well! Tour the plant life cycle with posters and hands-on activities, focusing on the unique way plants disperse their seeds, attract pollinators and manufacture food. Learn about parts of a plant, photosynthesis, germination, pollination and more. Each student will leave with a planted seed of their own.

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Forces of Nature

Grades 1-4

Investigate weather patterns and natural phenomena through activities that shake, shock, and erupt! Review the steps of the water cycle, learn about tectonic plates, and model the power of earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, and lightning. Use teamwork to attempt to build a house that is unshakeable! Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Forensics: The Science of Crime

Grades 5-8

Analyze human skull replicas to determine the sex and ethnicity of a fictional victim. Combine clues from the skull with crime scene evidence to determine the identity of a missing person and speculate as to the cause of death. Program can be expanded to include human evolution. Call for details. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Geology Rocks*

Grades 3–7

Transform into a geologist for the day! Learn all about rocks and minerals while viewing and handling impressive specimens from our collections. Examine and classify specimens to learn their true identity, then test your knowledge of everyday uses of minerals. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Incredible Insects

Grades 1–5

Get up close and personal with the creatures that make up Earth’s largest group of animals. Learn the characteristics of insects, see the world through the eyes of a fly and learn amazing facts about insect defense, including camouflage and mimicry. Meet live insects and view mounted insect specimens from around the globe. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Rainforest Adventure

Grades 1–2

Take an imaginary tour of the rainforest to learn about the diversity of animals and plants that live there. Explore the layers that make up this unique and important habitat, and meet several animals that call the rainforest home.

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The Reasons for the Seasons

Grades 1–5

Using globes, rotate and revolve your way to learning about the seasons and understanding why summer is warmer and winter is colder. Create the sounds of spring and explore seasonal camouflage with mounted animal specimens from our collections. Win a wintry prize if you can identify animal visitors from their scat and tracks left behind. Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Superheroes of STEMville

Grades 5-12

Calling all science heroes! The citizens of STEMville need your engineering and math skills to solve a series of challenges and save the community. Use the engineering design process to define the problems; then imagine, create and test solutions. Improve as needed until you save the city! Program available in Exploration Station format.

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Tour the Solar System

Grades 3–6

Soar through the solar system with recent slide images from Mercury, Neptune and beyond. Touch real meteorites and rocks like the ones found on our Moon and learn about why the gas giants are so colorful. Figure out your galactic address, visualize the distance between planets and observe the crushing effects of air pressure.

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Your Heart, Your Blood, Your Health

Grades 2–6

Learn how the heart is packaged, the way it works, the way it sounds, to which system it belongs and what it pumps. Get a closer look at capillaries, run a little race, test your food group knowledge and identify some giant microbes.

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What’s the (State of) Matter

Grades 1–3

Learn about solids, liquids, gases and plasma through fun, bubbly, sticky and electrifying experiments. Mix different states of matter to create something that isn’t quite a solid, liquid, gas or plasma and learn where it fits in the world of matter.

* Program requires a large open space.