Facilitated activity

In the "Horton Senses Something Small" story time program young visitors listen to the Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears a Who". They look at small things using lenses and use their sense of smell to detect things that are too small to see. Visitors also make and decorate a craft.

"Exploring Tools - Mitten Challenge" is a hands on activity in which visitors build a Lego® structure while wearing mittens. They learn that it is difficult to build small things when your tools are too big.

"Exploring Size - Powers of Ten" is a card game exploring the relative sizes of various objects. Visitors compete to organize their hand of cards into lists of objects from largest to smallest.

"Exploring Size - Memory Game" is a card game exploring the different size scales - macro, micro and nano - objects within these different scales and the way these objects are measured. Visitors compete to find matching pairs of cards.

"Exploring Products - Sunblock" is a hands-on activity comparing sunblock containing nanoparticles to ointment. Visitors learn how some sunblocks that rub in clear contain nanoparticles that block harmful rays from the sun.

"Exploring Products - Nano Sand" is a hands-on activity exploring how water behaves differently when it comes in contact with nano sand and regular sand. Visitors learn about the hydrophobic properties of nano sand.

"Exploring Materials - Thin Films" is a hands-on activity in which visitors create a colorful bookmark using a super thin layer of nail polish on water. They learn that a thin film creates iridescent, rainbow colors.

"Exploring Forces - Static Electricity" is a hands-on activity in which visitors discover that electrostatic forces cause smaller balls to be suspended in a tube while larger ones fall to the bottom. They learn that size can affect the way a material behaves.

The "Sweet Self-Assembly" program focuses on the creation of macrocapsules using self-assembly techniques. Participants make edible macrocapsules using techniques similar to those being used in laboratories to make nanocapsules or “smart drugs”.

This hands-on activity will guide you in making a synthetic gecko tape with micron sized hairs that mimics that behavior of the gecko foot. The process is called "nanomolding." Also described is an easy setup using Legos for testing how much weight the gecko tape can hold. Significant amount of research is ongoing in the field of synthetic Gecko tape due to its wide variety of applications. This program gives a glimpse of one of the methods used by researchers for making a synthetic gecko tape and its properties.