Through a recent partnership between the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention and the City of Gainesville, a group of about 30 elementary-school students were selected to participate in a hands-on science lab program.
Held inside the museum laboratory, the program invited children from the Porters Community Center to take part in three sessions of creative learning, which involve creating bubble gum and sidewalk chalk.
“Nowadays it’s so hard for (children) to sit down and learn with books in front of their teacher, because there’s so much technology out there,” said Chauncy Walker, the director of recreation at the community center. “So, this actually is a way to grasp their attention — grasp their interest — and make it fun and make them want to learn.”
The museum partnered with the Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department to bring the program, which will end Dec. 6, to fruition. Gretchen Berissord, the administrative assistant at the museum, said the museum is looking for more funding to continue the program with another group of children.
“The hope was to pursue funding that allows us to bring more kids to the lab,” Berissord said. “We’re collecting that data to prove that, if you bring kids into the lab environment and get them in here, that their whole attitude about learning and science and all that can totally change,” she said.
What the children have learned:
- Exothermic and endothermic reactions (used to make sidewalk chalk)
- Polymerization
- Molecules and how they get together
- Chemical and physical changes
