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Senior (Nano) Science Mondays

Vrylena Olney

I wrote about this in the February 2009 Nano Bite e-newsletter, but it didn't make it onto the Nano Bite blog until now.

The Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, PA hosted two Senior Science Monday workshops last January using activities from the NanoDays kits and an adaptation of the introduction to nano presentation (here and here).

The workshops were 45 minutes long and were at capacity with about 50 people each. The workshop consisted of a 25-minute introductory presentation followed by 20 minutes spent exploring a number hands-on activities. Ruth Brown, a Science Educator at the Da Vinci Science Center, gave the presentation, and was joined by two additional educators to facilitate the hands-on activities. Overall, Brown felt the workshop was a tremendous success.

Based on their experience the year before, Da Vinci staff successfully revised the format for these programs to have a longer presentation, and Brown encouraged the audience to participate in activities facilitated by several educators. From previous Senior Mondays, Da Vinci staff have found that seniors' organizations prefer doing activities in the hours right after lunch. Staff also said that the key to marketing these events for seniors in their area is working with the seniors' organizations, marketing the programs as a series of events, and beginning to work with the organizations well in advance.

Find more information on Seniors Mondays here or call 484.664.1002 extension 112. You can also follow up with Ruth Brown, Science Educator, at rbrown AT davinci-center DOT org.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison MRSEC also ran a nano program for seniors, you can read more about it here.