Cool Science at UCCS

I'm frugal (most of the time).  I'm always looking for something fun for the kids (the parent in me), and where they can also learn something (the teacher and parent in me). 

Saturday morning I told the kiddos we were going to go to UCCS and hit the Cool Science Day.  Abs wanted no part of that.  "It's going to be boring."  "Who wants to learn about Science anyway."  "I can have more fun playing legos all day in the basement."  "I have nothing to wear."  "Why do you do this to me???"

Regardless, I let her leave the house in mismatched clothing and we headed out.  When we got there, Abs was drawn in right away.  They had 36 booths setup through the building, and gave the students a passport so they could check off each one as they completed it.  Abs is a checklist girl. 

We started out by looking at sound waves, testing sound waves, and experimenting with sound. 

From there we moved to shadows, lasers, mirrors and working with light.

Simple motors...

 

Then it was on to simple machines, dinosaurs, and working with dry ice.

There was a whole section on space, stars, and making rockets.

They touches snakes and iguanas, flew space shuttle simulators, created hover aircraft out of balloons, worked with air, made worms, and tons more.

We acted like birds migrating, and played a game that had us running all over the rooftop trying to make it south for the winter.  I got tons of ideas for science classes, and all the materials to do the experiments.  Abs was enthralled with every station, asking questions and trying to soak up as much as possible which is her method of operation.  The poor little guy at the raisin and ginger ale booth didn't know what hit him.  Everyone came and looked, then moved on, while Abs sat there for 15 minutes quizzing him on everything about the raisins, why it worked, how it worked, and then re-explained it back to him to make sure she understood.  The workers were great, and I think were glad to have someone that was interested in the how and the why rather than flitting about from booth to booth.

When it was all said and done, and we had visited every single booth, we finally were able to drag Abs out of there.  As we walked to the car I asked her how she enjoyed it, and her response was "I guess it was okay".  I know she had a great time, regardless of her answers, and Em and Junior loved it. 

Gunner took the kids swimming at the Y while I finished up some school work since I am flying out this week to TEXAS!!!!  We're hoping to get some things done this morning so we can head out this afternoon to somewhere new.....