Science Education Project JCCEO Head Start Program McWane Science Center Childcare Resources PNC Bank

Office staff greet families as they arrive for the event.

Can You Balance a Ruler? Children explored how to balance a ruler on a single cylinder. Each ruler had a different weight. Teachers praised success!

Can You Balance the Ruler?

All In One Puzzles Children and families piece together sequence puzzles. Puzzles depicted the growth processes of wild animals.

Crayon Rubbings Various science stencils of nature objects, animals, and science tools. Children and parents explored with pleasure as they rubbed the stencils on paper to create a picture.

Live Animal Exhibit Children, parents, and staff observed and petted live baby animals including this scaly reptile.

Can You Complete the Life Cycle? Child pieces together puzzle picture showing the life cycle of a bird.

Teacher guides the little girl as she puts together a puzzle picture of an insect’s life cycle.

As an added bonus in the Grow Up Great Project, Head Start children were able to experience the stars and outer space in a mobile planetarium sponsored by PNC Bank.

It’s kinda’ dark in there!

Star gazing in the planetarium

Children and teachers from Lipscomb Center enjoyed the experience.

The planetarium experience generated a lot of questions!

…and more questions!

Souvenir stickers and booklets from the mobile planetarium visit

Children hated to leave the planetarium.

Stars and planets all around!

…and more questions!

A great experience!

The PNC bus transported the planetarium from center to center

Children visit the McWane Science Center several times during the year to play with the exhibits.

Teachers received materials to implement experiments in their classrooms. Trainers from McWane Science Center and Childcare Resources introduced the activities to teachers during professional development workshops, & gave teachers an opportunity to play with the materials before presenting them to the children.

Ms. Wilson at Calloway Center learned to make ‘oobleck’ during a training exercise with Childcare Resources.

Teaching staff learned how to teach children about the layers of the earth using a hands-on activity with apples.

Teachers learned how to create a simple geyser using funnels and baking soda to teach children how geysers, such as Old Faithful, erupt.

Teachers learned how to estimate the age of a tree by counting its rings.

Teaching staff explored bugs and learned useful ways to make bugs fun for children.

Teachers explored how different items absorb water so that they could share their discoveries with the class.

Teaching staff learned a fun way to help children understand which items will sink and which items will float.