General SCI

Our littles today are tomorrow’s inventors and problem solvers. So how can we, as parents, help our young explorers get off to a great start?

It starts with our own mindset! Research shows that adult caregivers are critical in the education trajectory of their young children. Our attitudes and values directly influence our children more than anything else in their schooling years. But where to start?

Early childhood programs developed by the Science Center of Iowa (SCI) empower caregivers to gain confidence in science content, overcome misconceptions and provide easy ways to incorporate these concepts into their daily lives. Programs are designed using best practices in early childhood education and focus around STEM concepts – or science, technology, engineering and math.

They have a few great programs that will spark your kiddo’s curiosity – and maybe even teach parents a thing or two as well!

Pint Size Science and Toddler Edition Classes
Offered two days each month during the school year, these classroom experiences introduce young explorers to science concepts through fun, hands-on activities they can share with a parent or caregiver. Pint Size Science is designed for children ages 3 to 5, and Toddler Edition classes are for littles ages 20 months to 3 years. Register early – because classes fill quickly!

Summer and Winter Camps
Science camps help children form friendships and develop a love for science early on. The SCI Preschool operates Summer and Winter Camps as well as full-day summer classes to encourage children to explore how and why things happen and discover the answers through experimentation. Winter Camps are scheduled for December 27-28 and January 2-4 this year.

Family STEM Institute
The newest of SCI’s early childhood programs, Family STEM Institute provides families with tools and tips to incorporate educational learning into their daily lives. Evening workshops are open to families with children ages 0 to 8. This year’s Family STEM Institute workshops are on December 4 (Classifying Creatures), February 28 (Exploring Engineering) and April 16 (Bits and Bots). Pre-registration is required.

To learn more about the Science Center of Iowa’s early childhood programs, visit www.sciowa.org/earlychildhood

Paper plates transformed into planets. CD shards transformed into bright stars. Hanging lights transformed into glittery constellations.

For a class of juniors and seniors at Lincoln High School, unconventional thinking and unconventional materials transformed into an award-winning dress design, inspired by SCI’s Why The Sky? experience platform.

“When I first heard about the project, I was excited because we got to work together and do something that we constructed in so many different ways with so many possibilities,” said senior Elia Juarez, director of the Lincoln fashion show.

Tia Wilson’s sewing class entered a DMACC fashion design contest this spring. The group had just one week to design and create a dress with SCI in mind. Per her students’ competitive nature, Wilson suggested they visit SCI, rather than just look at pictures of exhibits.

The group gravitated to Why The Sky?, focusing on the Mars rover replica and constellations, in particular. When they got back to the classroom, each student did a sketch of the dress. Students combined their ideas into a single piece and got to work… They had just four days to sew the finished product, after all.

“We had to use recyclable materials when we were making it, so we used paper plates,” said senior Allison Esle. “We didn’t really know how we were going to get them to stick on, so we tried to hand sew them. The plates ripped a little. We tried to hot glue them. That was probably the hardest part.”

Halfway through the week, the dress design had fallen away from its original inspiration at SCI, so Wilson helped her students refocus the piece without starting over.

Scientific discoveries, like the dress, require unconventional materials and unconventional thinking.

“I said, ‘Well, we can’t start from scratch, so how can we use what we already have to make it different?’”

Junior Binti Mohamed said she and her classmates weren’t sure if the dress would turn out as they had planned, especially after their midweek redesign, but the final piece surprised them.

“It was really awesome,” Mohamed said. “It didn’t always look like it was going to turn out well, but it did.”

The dress won the contest and was showcased in the DMACC Fashion Show on Friday, April 14. Juarez, the director of the fashion show, said she enjoyed seeing the dress inspire others at the event.

“I think just the most rewarding thing is being able to work with other people and see our creation out there and see other people looking at it and taking away whatever they want from it,” she said.

The Science Center of Iowa’s Make@SCI initiative encourages people of all ages to be makers and use familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. Making empowers children and adults alike to reimagine everyday materials and inspire the next generation of STEM professionals.