May Theme: Senses Month

The spring season is the time when plants and animals come to life in exciting new ways. Many of these changes bring new sensory experiences like smells, sounds, and sights.

As we welcome in bright flowers, woodland creatures, and humid weather we can feel, we're celebrating Senses Month at Adventure Science Center.

All month long, we're highlighting renewable energy, environmental impact, and green plants that contribute to a more sustainable planet.

Check out a few of the activities we're facilitating this month and explore the science behind it all.

Themed programming will take place:

• Every day in the i2 Makerspace
• Every Monday at 9:30 am in the Early Explorer Storytime in Eureka Theatre
• Every day in Live Science in Eureka Theatre
• Optional theme build in Tinkering Garage
• Floor cart activities on the floor throughout the month

Activities in the i2 Makerspace

• May 4-5: DIY Tiny Lightsabers
• May 11-12: Craft your own bathbombs
• May 18-19: Kaleidoscope craft
• May 25-26: 3D Art complete with 3D glasses

Early Explorer Storytime Books and Activities

• May 6: Sounds All Around
  
  • Early Explorers will learn how sound waves travel through the air and make vibrations in their ears. Guests will make a set of maracas to make their own sounds!
• May 13: The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes | The Story of Patricia Bath
  • Early Explorers will learn about the parts of an eye and how they work together to give us the sense of sight. They will make a 3D model of an eye to take home with them.
• May 20: Can You Smell Breakfast?
  • Early Explorers will learn how the nose is a passageway to the brain that allows us to smell the world around us. We will learn how noses are a line of defense that prevents bad bacteria and pathogens from entering our bodies and make "booger" slime.
• May 27: Never Touch the Wild Animals
  • Early Explorers will have a chance to touch specimens from our natural history collection including a raccoon, sea turtle, snake skin, armadillo, and duck. Then, guests can make a sensory board including as many of the provided textures as they'd like.

Time: Every Monday at 9:30 am
Location: Eureka Theatre on the second floor
Ages: Pre-K (Kids Under Five)
Follow us on Instagram for a sneak peek at each week's story and associated activity.

Floor Cart Activities and Demonstrations

During “Senses Month” we are experimenting with the five human senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Jellybean Demo 

Visitors will attempt to guess the flavor of a jellybean while they have their noses plugged. They will learn that the nasal passageway must be opened to experience flavor. The tongue has taste receptors that can identify 5 tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Flavor is identified by the olfactory bulb which is in the forebrain. Molecules make their way to the olfactory bulb through the nose and nasal passageway. 

This activity demonstrates the idea that we “eat with our eyes”. If we see a green jellybean, our brains assume what it will taste like i.e. green apple, lime. But if your eyes are closed and your brain must figure it out, it becomes more difficult to determine the flavor!

Optical Illusions 

The goal of this demonstration is to introduce visitors to the science behind optical illusions. Humans need light to identify colors. Optical illusions use color, light, and patterns to create images that are confusing to our brains. Guests will view optical illusions and then learn what their brains are trying to process. 

The brain has a LOT of information to process all at once. Its job is to take in information from your environment and make sense of it in an instant. When there is something out of the ordinary or confusing that your brain is not used to processing, it can get confused. Once the illusion is explained, then your brain can process the information it’s taking in more easily.

Chemistry Makes “Scents” 

This activity lets participants use their noses to distinguish between two chemicals with very similar structures (caraway oil & peppermint oil). These molecule pairs contain all the same elements, arranged in the same way but flipped in a "mirror image." While these chemicals can behave similarly, they often have very different properties (including the way they smell). Visitors can also handle and visualize the structural differences represented by large molecules. 

This activity demonstrates that one small, difference in molecular structure can result in completely different chemical properties.

Hearing Test 

Visitors will listen to a range of frequencies through headphones. They will notify the facilitator when they can no longer hear the frequency, then mark on the graph the frequency at which they can no longer hear.

Hearing starts to degrade as we get older due to age, but studies show that many young people are losing their hearing, most likely due to earphones that have become more popular over the years. 

Staff and guests can observe the correlation between age and hearing loss on our community science graph!

Adventure Science Center is open:

Monday, Thursday, Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Join us this month for science fun for all ages!