Family Fun Plaza

Objective: Design IT Studios is bringing activity for the Museum guest, who's visiting the Star Wars exhibit, to come play in Family Fun Plaza.

Time: June 5th-7th, 2007

Activity: Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11:30am-5:30pm Design IT Studios is out and about the Museum of Science and History playing with various activities. For this weekend, we brought the trebuchet out, stomp rockets, and keva kapla.

In the picture to the left, Eric is instructing the kids on the difference between trebuchet and catapult, how the trebuchet works, and letting the kids tell him what degree he needs to position the launcher and where to place the red sack. We had an intern become a target but pretty soon guest and parents wanted to get wet too!

Stomp Rocket activity has been going on since the beginning of June. Interns became experts at making rockets fly to the top of the Museum building. The guests enjoy making a couple of different design in their stomp rocket to see which one would work the best.

Keva Kapla is a fun activity for designing building from the old to the modern. Many adults and kids enjoying building but on a hot day they prefer not to seat out for in the heat.

This weekend was fairly busy with water balloons and rockets flying over heads. The guest loved the trebuchet and many kids asked how to make one. Parents were excited and wanted to join their kids playing and trying to figure out how to hit the target.

Eddie and Ashley instructing the guest on how to make a rocket out of construction paper.

3, 2, 1, go.... who will it hit?

Does it hit David ?!?

Planning for a Hot July

Today in the studio, the interns and staff discussed what has been done in the past few weeks and planned on what other activities can be done in the future. So far, our interns have been working outside (and in, when raining) with the museum public. The interns launched water balloons with our trebuchet, created spin art creations with kids, shot bottle rockets and have done so much more. Our interns noted that it's been a really good past few weeks but, there can be some adjustments and some additions that can make the program flourish further.

In part one of our meeting, we discussed how to influence the museum patrons to come outside where our projects are taking place and how to work our trebuchet more efficiently. The interns noted that if it is cooler outside, perhaps the museum patrons will find the idea of playing outside more attractive. Although we can do a lot of things in the studio, of course we cannot change the course of weather! The interns decided that umbrellas for shade and more fans will help out with the heat problem. The trebuchet also provides a little relief from the heat. Children who visit the museum are always willing to be smacked and drenched in the head by a water balloon.

The trebuchet we currenly have in the studio isn't the greatest. Fortunately enough, our studio will have three more trebuchets coming within the next few weeks. With that, it is decided that we should set a few guidelines when working with the trebuchet:

- Children are allowed two water ballon throws (First time to get a feel for it, second to actually aim and shoot the target.)
- Explain the science behind the trebuchet (e.g. water ballon weight vs. counter veight, variables)
- Only studio staff can handle the trebuchet during launching part- kids help load and aim trebuchet only.

In part two of our discussion, our interns were asked to plan, research, and build water bottle rockets. The interns and studio adults set up guidelines and tips (as we did for the trebuchet).
Tips:
- Let the kids build the "top part thing" to the rocket.
- Let the kids pump the air
- Tell people when you are releasing the rocket.
- Get the people to run away for shelter!

Working on bottle rockets

Overall, the meeting was a success! The interns worked diligently and explained their part of their research well. Good job today!

Who says we shouldn't let kids make their own lightsaber?

This past Saturday, the Design IT Studio Interns and Sammie created Star Wars Lightsabers for the first time. Of course, this wouldn't be the actual Star Wars swords- things would get pretty messy. When our little Sammie designed these little lightsabers, she decided to replicate these lightsabers based on her size- thus miniature lightsabers were born!


Creating these lightsabers is quite simple. Electrical tape, glue sticks, watch batteries, LED lights, popsicle sticks, and a little bit of imagination from our guests and interns is all that's needed to create these miniature replicas. Wesley, Ashley and Jasmine were our three all-star interns this weekend helping us out. For about 3 hours, the interns, Sammie and I helped guests make their own wands. The children who came by were really excited about these wands- some of them even begged to make more than one! The parents also were very interested in their child's work. Many of them inquired on how to create these wands themselves at home!

Overall, the DesignIT time on Saturday was a hit. People were coming in non-stop for the entire time we were there, and the patrons were patient about waiting in line for their child to create their own mini lightsaber. Thanks to the interns and Sammie for the great work they did!