Play at the Park!

For a fifth summer, the Children’s Museum is bringing playful hands-on activities to parks across Providence, building on our commitment to advocate for and raise awareness of the critical importance of children’s play, and our efforts to provide unstructured play opportunities throughout the community.

Join us to try a variety of playful open-ended activities – to build forts, blow bubbles, send rockets soaring, play parachute games, and more. Activities take place evenings in July and August from 5:00 - 8:00 PM during Celebrate Providence, the city’s Neighborhood Performing Arts Initiative performances, and are free to the public.

PLAY AT THE PARK 
with Providence Children's Museum!
All events from 5:00 - 8:00 PM

Thursday, July 7

Bucklin Park | Bucklin and Daboll Streets

Tuesday, July 12

Fargnoli Park | Smith and Jastram Streets

Wednesday, July 13

Harriet and Sayles Park | Harriet and Sayles Streets

Thursday, July 21

Dexter Training Grounds | Dexter and Parade Streets

Wednesday, July 27

Harriet and Sayles Park | Harriet and Sayles Streets

Thursday, August 4

Billy Taylor Park | Camp and Cypress Streets

Unstructured, child-directed play is vital for kids’ healthy growth and development, and the Museum is bringing play to public spaces to combat children’s growing play deficit and to make high-quality play experiences available to all kids and families. As a strong advocate for the critical importance of open-ended, child-directed play, we're excited to continue partnering with Providence parks to bring creative play opportunities to kids and families in communities throughout the city.

Children’s Museum activities at the parks are part of its participation in Playful Providence – a citywide celebration commemorating Providence’s fifth consecutive designation as a Playful City USA by KaBOOM!, which recognizes communities commended for prioritizing play. Events are supported in part by Hasbro Children's Fund.

A Summer of Play with Providence PlayCorps

Providence PlayCorps returns for a third summer of unstructured play at parks throughout the city!  We are proud to be part of this innovative collaboration between the Children’s Museum, the City of Providence’s Department of Parks + Recreation and Healthy Communities Office and the Partnership for Providence Parks to activate low-income neighborhood parks across Providence with free play, art and creative exploration in conjunction with the free federal summer meals program.

Teams of trained play facilitators are a consistent presence at community parks throughout Providence.  They provide activities and materials to engage neighborhood children in physically active play, improving the overall safety of the parks while encouraging more children to take advantage of free, nutritious summer meals.  By working in neighborhood parks, PlayCorps fills the gap when school is out to ensure that Providence youth are active, safe and healthy over the summer.

PlayCorps activities take place from July 5 to August 19, 2016 (Monday to Friday from 11 AM to 2 PM) in these parks:

• Cabral Park (Fox Point)
• Bucklin Park (West End)
• Father Lennon/Camden Street Park (Smith Hill)
• General Street Park (Wanskuck)
• Harriet & Sayles Park (South Side)
• Joslin Park (Olneyville)
• Wallace Street Park (Silver Lake)

Join PlayCorps members for an exciting summer of play.  Enjoy a free summer meal (age18 and under) and build forts, blow bubbles, make art, make music, explore nature, make friends and SO much more!

To learn more and for updates and activity announcements, visit www.PlayCorps.org and follow PlayCorps on Facebook.

Providence PlayCorps is a collaboration of the City of Providence’s Department of Parks + Recreation and Healthy Communities Office, the Partnership for Providence Parks and Providence Children's Museum.  PlayCorps 2016 is also supported by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, a Health Equity Zone grant through the Rhode Island Department of Health, PODS and the Rhode Island Foundation.
 

Museum Videos

Check out two new videos illustrating the Museum's impact and service and the work of our nationally recognized Families Together program!

Museum Debuts Interactive Sound Sculpture

By Megan Fischer and Robin Meisner

Providence Children’s Museum has designed a vibrant, interactive sound sculpture for Harriet & Sayles Park in South Providence as part of PopUp Providence – an innovative urban place-making program funded by Providence’s Department of Planning + Development that supports temporary and inexpensive artistic and cultural interventions to enliven neighborhoods across the city.  Installed at the park now through August, the sculpture invites kids and adults to explore rhythm and make music on a variety of inventive percussion instruments.

Exhibit Designer Chris Sancomb observes the first kids to test the sculpture.

Children inherently respond to banging on drums and ringing bells – they love making and sharing music.  The Museum-created sound sculpture invites kids of all abilities to play with instruments in their own ways and to create meaningful interactions with music and with each other.  Making music together promotes confidence and social skills, as well as the development of language, mathematical and spatial thinking – and it's just good fun!  By incorporating a variety of intriguing reclaimed objects and new materials, the sculpture offers kids the opportunity to play both usual and unusual instruments.  We hope to inspire children and their caregivers to explore ways that everyday items can be repurposed into something playful, and to encourage kids to explore their interests and express themselves freely.

While some sculpture components were repurposed, others were laser cut or handmade from steel and welded together.

Many people don’t know that we make our own exhibits at Providence Children’s Museum.  One of the defining features of our environments is that they are original creations made by the Museum's professional staff along with additional educators, scholars and artists, which means that most of what you see at the Museum was developed, designed and fabricated in house.  We were excited to go beyond our walls to create the sound sculpture for Harriet & Sayles Park because we have a deep commitment to bringing high-quality play and learning experiences to low-income families across Providence – particularly to the South Providence neighborhood close to the Museum.  Most of our outreach takes the form of programs and activities, and the sound sculpture allows us to offer something new.

Stop by Harriet & Sayles to make some joyful noise this summer!  And if you arrive on a weekday from 11 AM - 2 PM, you’ll also see unstructured, creative play activities guided by Providence PlayCorps, in conjunction with the free federal summer meals program.

See more photos of the music sculpture installation on Facebook.

Persistence: A Head Start Story

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our AmeriCorps Museum Educators over the 2013-2014 service year. This story was shared by Amanda Howard, a member of the team that served 1,000 Head Start preschoolers in 58 classrooms in greater Providence with fun-filled Museum explorations and a year-long series of imaginative activities to help them understand and value diversity. 

We bring each of our Head Start groups on Museum field trips. During one field trip, I was able to work with and observe a 3-year-old boy playing with the ramps and balls in Play Power. The boy dropped a ball into a magnet ramp that was already set up and watched it glide down until it fell through a space in one of the pieces. The boy was disappointed that his ball did not complete the entire ramp and proceeded to move the pieces around and pick new ones until it worked. On a few different tries I asked him questions like, “Why do you think the ball didn’t complete your ramp?” and “How can change the ramp to make sure the ball doesn’t fall off?” When he was finally able to get the ball to go all the way down, he was so proud of himself. He showed everyone how great his ramp was and everyone thought it was very cool.

Later, his teacher told me that he had never spent so long working on something and usually gives up very easily when things do not work out for him. I’m glad that I was able to help him stay focused and not give up on his task even though it took him a while to work it out.

Redirection: Boys & Girls Club Stories

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our AmeriCorps Museum Educators over the 2013-2014 service year. These stories were shared by members of the team that facilitated a Museum Learning Club at the Boys & Girls Club on the Southside of Providence and provided engaging STEM enrichment activities to 190 2nd to 4th graders. 

One of our 2nd graders has trouble acclimating to lessons and is often reprimanded and scolded throughout the school day because of such issues. This day, he was acting out by knocking down the cup towers other children had made. I told him that I know how much fun it is to knock things down and we could do so together if he built his own tower first. When he responded that he didn't know how, I realized what the problem was and jumped on the learning opportunity. I tried several different methods until he finally grasped the concept of building cup towers, smiled and became completely engaged in the activity. A couple minutes in, one of his so-called rivals came over and he started to shoo him away. I suggested we could all build together and my heart melted as he handed his maybe-no-longer nemesis a cup and began teaching him how to build a tower the same way I taught him.

– Meg Conery

We were facilitating Imagination Playground and our kids were a little restless. There was a lot of pretend play happening, some of it becoming chaotic and all of it becoming loud. Right as the activity was reaching the point where we were going to have to reel everybody back in, I heard a shout. "THE QUEEN IS HERE! ATTENTION! EVERYONE LOOK UP!"

It was like magic. I had tried to get everyone's attention to lower the volume or remind them to be safe without success, but a small girl with a big voice froze the room in an instant. She announced the queen's arrival and made all of the subjects sit on the floor. She hired the other kids one at a time to work on constructing the castle, channeling what was loud, undirected play into thoughtful, purposeful pretend play. Every time the castle subjects were off task, the girl would redirect her peers. It was incredible to watch their ability to self-regulate and establish peace in their blue foam kingdom.

 – Sarah Schnurr

Engagement: A Learning Club Story

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our AmeriCorps Museum Educators over the 2013-2014 service year. This story was shared by Alison Rutsch, a member of the team that conducted after-school Learning Clubs exploring fun hands-on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) activities for low-income elementary school-age kids in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. 

Throughout our spring Learning Clubs we ran a lesson called “Meet a Worm,” in which kids learn all about worms and then observe real live night crawlers. “Meet a Worm” is the lesson I’m most proud of creating. It included time for in-depth exploration using drawing as an observation tool, a dialogue with students about worms, and a crazy worm race on the carpet. We also created a worm true or false game and had a great time making up untruths about worms. I think the beauty of lesson is that it shines a new light on something that is part of our everyday environment, showing that the world is a really exciting place if you're just willing to look closely. A testament to this fact: one of our Learning Club kids went home and collected his own pet worms!

Saluting a Year of Service to Kids in Need

The Museum has been an AmeriCorps site since 1997 and has hired and trained AmeriCorps members to bring play-based literacy, science and math activities to more than 20,000 children in under-resourced neighborhoods. 

This week, we’re celebrating the graduation of the Museum’s 18th remarkable AmeriCorps team and their 22,000 hours of dedicated service over the past year.  This group of 12 full-time members and four additional summer members extended the Museum’s reach to children and families in underserved communities in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls and had a tremendous impact. There’s so much the Museum simply could not do without the dedication and passion of these committed and talented individuals.

The Museum’s 2012-13 AmeriCorps team:

• Facilitated imaginative activities that celebrate diversity to help improve school readiness for 1,000 Head Start preschoolers in 58 classrooms
• Engaged over 500 elementary school-aged children with inspiring play-based math and science activities during after-school and summer Learning Clubs at Boys & Girls Club of Providence, Highlander Charter School and other community-based programs
• Welcomed 1,600 low-income children and family members to free Museum family nights, where they received complimentary year-long admission passes
• Recruited and trained dozens of Museum volunteers
• Engaged Museum visitors in hands-on exhibits and developed interactive public programs
• And much more!

Some of the tributes shared during their graduation ceremony:

“One-thousand Head Start children experienced your creativity, your passion and your enthusiasm – please know you have made a difference in the life of a child.”

– Ellen Morey, Children’s Friend

“Thank you to this wonderful group of talented individuals. You each brought your passions, talents and skills to this incredible institution.”

– Marisa Petreccia, Serve RI

“When the Museum first moved from Pawtucket to Providence, my dream was that our audience would be as diverse and varied as our community. You are the hands and voices and hearts and minds that bring our message to the community, and we do attract a richly diverse audience because of you. I’m very grateful for that.”

– Janice O’Donnell, Museum director

“Thank you for keeping the Museum’s mission at heart all the time and for putting children first.”

– Olga Lerner, Museum Early Childhood Learning Programs Developer

Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Ali, Alison, Amanda, Ashley, David, Faina, Hannah, Jack, Joey, Meg, Samantha, Sarah L., Sarah S., Tracey, Vanessa and Zoe!

The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and Serve Rhode Island, with support from additional sponsors for the Head Start and Learning Club programs.

Pop-Up Play Day to Kick Off Playful Providence 2014

Click here for more information
or to volunteer at Pop-Up Play Day!

Great News! Museum Receives AmeriCorps Funding

On Wednesday, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) announced $205 million in grants to fund 288 AmeriCorps programs and the service of 43,000 AmeriCorps members nationally. Providence Children’s Museum is one of only two organizations in Rhode Island to receive full federal funding in the highly competitive 2014 grant cycle.

The Museum’s program was awarded a 3-year grant and will receive $159,600 annually from the CNCS for 12 full-time AmeriCorps members.  The Museum has been an AmeriCorps site since 1997 and has served over 20,000 children through innovative outreach to inner-city schools, community centers and Head Start programs.  With this funding, the Museum will welcome its 19th AmeriCorps team in the fall.

Designed to help close the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children, the Museum’s AmeriCorps program provides stimulating interactive learning experiences not available to most low-income children.  Under the guidance of Museum education staff, AmeriCorps members work to inspire a lifetime love of learning, providing enriched learning experiences for all greater Providence Head Start preschoolers and conducting Learning Clubs for inner-city school-age children.

The Museum’s 2014-15 AmeriCorps members will:

• Implement engaging play-based classroom activities that encourage problem solving in all 56 Children’s Friend Head Start classrooms, serving 1,000 3- to 5-year-olds and supporting Head Start’s goal of improving school readiness.

• Guide Head Start children on classroom field trips to the Museum for hands-on play and learning.

• Deliver Learning Clubs – hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) enrichment activities with a focus on math – for 200 low-income 2nd-4th graders in after-school and summer programs at the Boys & Girls Club and Highlander Charter School in South Providence.

• Support recess by facilitating play-based activities at Highlander Charter School and Mary E. Fogarty Elementary School.

• Welcome all Head Start and Learning Club program participants and their families to Family Nights at the Children’s Museum, where they receive free year-long Museum passes.

“Bringing hands-on fun and learning to thousands of disadvantaged kids each year, AmeriCorps greatly increases the Museum’s capacity to serve families who need it most,” said Museum Executive Director Janice O’Donnell.

Click here for more information about the Museum’s AmeriCorps program. 

Federal funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service must be matched by private support.  The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is also supported by Serve Rhode Island and currently receives additional funding from Amgen Foundation; Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation; The John Clarke Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee; Cox Charities of New England Fund; CVS Caremark Charity Classic; Frank B. Hazard General Charity Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; Sovereign Bank Foundation; Textron Charitable Trust; UnitedHealthcare of New England; and donors to the Museum's Annual Campaign.

Extending the Museum’s Reach

AmeriCorps is celebrating its 20th anniversary, each year engaging more than 80,000 individuals in intensive service at nonprofits, schools, and community agencies nationwide. This fall, the Museum entered its 17th year of hosting an AmeriCorps program and welcomed 12 full-time volunteers committed to instilling a lifetime love of learning in children – especially those whose exposure to high-quality educational experiences is limited.

It’s a unique individual who is willing to dedicate a year to service, and this group brings an array of talents and experiences that will enrich children at the Museum and in the community. Seven of the 12 served in AmeriCorps previously, three at Providence Children’s Museum. They bring experience from science, art and history museums. Two have degrees in education.

Over the course of their service, the Museum team will make an immeasurable impact. They’ll reach over 1,500 low-income children in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls with inspiring hands-on activities, Museum field trips, and free family nights and annual passes. They’ll also support Museum visitors, engaging children and families in playful exploration and interactive programs, plus recruit and train Museum volunteers.

Welcome to the 2013-14 MuseumCorps team – Alison, Amanda, Ashley, David, Faina, Hannah, Jack, Joey, Meg, Sarah, Tracey and Vanessa!

The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and Serve Rhode Island, with support from additional sponsors for the Head Start and Learning Club programs.

A PlayFULL Summer at the Parks

This spring and summer, the Museum brought unstructured play to Providence parks for a second year, taking Imagination Playground blocks, fort building and other open-ended fun with loose parts to neighborhoods across the city.  Even though the weather wasn’t as cooperative as we’d have liked, we provided creative play experiences for 930 kids and family members, thanks to the support of the Providence Department of Parks and Recreation and the Partnership for Providence Parks.

We saw kids do some pretty incredible things and captured some of our favorite playful moments.

Imagination Playground blocks were a big hit, as always.

This giant structure was a tremendous collaborative effort.

 Adding loose parts created even more opportunities for play.

This grandma and grandson build a steep ramp and took turns rolling and catching balls. Much chasing and giggling ensued!

We also provided wood working with real tools, stick structures with dowels and rubber bands, and Rigamajig – a set of boards, pulleys, wheels, nuts and bolts that inspire creative construction.

This girl spent over two hours thoughtfully building an elaborate house. She draped it with fabric and added a doghouse. Though she welcomed construction help from other kids, when it was time to take it apart, she insisted on doing it ALL by herself.

This family with older kids approached reluctantly, skeptical about playing. But hours later, they were still busy building and rebuilding their house – here dad prepares the curtains!

This tiny teepee was barely built for two!

Cardboard was a hugely popular play material.

This cardboard dwelling – colored inside and out with chalk – had a fabric “carpet” and constantly changing occupants.

This box was occupied by one of its territorial “owners” for well over two hours!

We saw A LOT of inspired fort building with cardboard, dowels, fabric and more.

Forts...

...forts...

and MORE forts!

Thanks to our caped play crusaders and to everyone who played with us this summer!

Committed Service to Kids in Need

This month, we celebrated the graduation of the Museum’s 17th (!) AmeriCorps team and their 22,500 hours of dedicated service over the past year. This group of 12 full-time members and four additional summer members extended the Museum’s reach to children and families in underserved communities throughout and around Providence and had a tremendous impact. There’s so much the Museum simply could not do without the hard work and passion of these committed and talented individuals.

Did you know that the Museum’s 2012-13 AmeriCorps team:

• Facilitated imaginative activities that celebrate diversity to help improve school readiness for more than 1,000 Head Start preschoolers
• Engaged over 500 elementary school-aged children with inspiring play-based math and science activities during after-school and summer Learning Clubs
• Welcomed more than 1,300 low-income children and family members to free Museum family nights, where they received complimentary year-long admission passes
• Recruited and trained dozens of Museum volunteers
• Engaged Museum visitors in hands-on exhibits and developed interactive public programs
• And much more!

Some heartfelt tributes shared during their graduation ceremony:

“[These children are] lucky if they meet someone who challenges their hearts and brains and changes the way they think. You might be that person.”

– Mary Ellen O'Mahony, Children’s Friend

 “Thank you for dedicating a year of your lives. It’s the best example of communities and people coming together to make the world a better places… leveling the playing field for these children and giving them the opportunities they deserve.”

– Marisa Petreccia, Serve Rhode Island

“We could not reach these children in these numbers and with this depth without you…What would be the point of having a children’s museum if we couldn’t reach the children who need us most?”

– Janice O’Donnell, Museum director

Our sincere thanks and congratulations to Alex, Alexandra, Amanda, Ashley, Bridget, Dylan, Francesca, Jack, Kaylor, Kayshia, Leah, Mandy, Megan, Ryan, Samantha and Sarah!

The Museum’s AmeriCorps program is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and Serve Rhode Island with additional support from Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation; The John Clarke Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee; CVS Caremark Charity Classic; Frank B. Hazard General Charity Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; Harry M., Miriam C. & William C. Horton Fund, Bank of America, Co-Trustee; Museum Annual Campaign Donors; Sovereign Bank Foundation; Textron Charitable Trust; and UnitedHealthcare of New England.

Discovery: A Summer Learning Story

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our 2012-13 AmeriCorps Museum Educators as their service year comes to a close. Leah Taradash shared this story about facilitating play-based summer enrichment activities to support school readiness for rising kindergartners.

The day that Michael learned that red and blue makes purple was a magical day at Asa Messer Elementary School.

As we planned the curriculum for our summer as part of Kid's Bridge, a kindergarten prep program for low-income children, we knew that we wanted to provide the children with new experiences that would inspire their creativity and inquisitive nature while getting them ready for school. Color mixing with paints was the perfect activity – it introduced materials such as paint and paintbrushes, allowed for creativity, incorporated scientific principles, and is just plain fun. After listening to the book Mouse Paint, the kids were excited to learn that they would use paints to mix colors, just like the mice did. I couldn't help but smile as they mixed different combinations of red, blue and yellow to make green, orange and purple and shouted their discoveries with glee.

When it was Michael's turn, he pointed to a cup that a previous child had mixed and said, "I want the purple paint!" He looked skeptical when I told him that to make purple he would have to use red and blue.  "I have to put them together? With this?" he asked as he picked up the paintbrush, making it clear that he had probably never used painting materials before. I watched him ever so slowly pick up the brush and dip it into the red paint. "I put it in there?" he asked, pointing to the blue. I nodded and he placed the paintbrush inside the cup of blue. "It's not working. Where's the purple?" "You have to mix it together," I said, and moved my hand in a stirring motion. "And maybe add some more red." He began to stir the paint together, adding a bit more red to the mixture, until suddenly flecks of a deep purple began to appear. Michael looked up at me with such wonder in his eyes and yelled, "It did it! It made purple! It really happened!" He spent the next five minutes experimenting with adding different amounts of red and blue to his paper and seeing how he could make different shades of purple.

Watching Michael and the other children's joyful reactions to discovering the science behind color mixing made me proud to  give them the opportunity to make discoveries about things that adults often take for granted.

Making Connections: Boys & Girls Club Stories

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our 2012-13 AmeriCorps Museum Educators as their service year comes to a close. These stories were shared by Dylan Maeby, a member of the team that facilitated a Museum Learning Club at the Boys & Girls Club on the Southside of Providence and provided engaging STEM enrichment activities to 130 2nd to 4th graders.

Science Inspiration
“Potions” was the last in a series of lessons we developed about the science behind magic.  We’d used static electricity to move objects without touching them, made flip books to show that pictures can come to life, and now we were using ingredients like “unicorn horn” (Alka-Seltzer) mixed with “dragon blood” (food coloring and water) to illustrate the power of chemical reactions.  Throughout the lesson the kids were delighted as their mixtures bubbled and fizzed.  Through careful observation, they determined which ingredients were responsible for the reactions they observed and which ones were not.  A successful lesson for sure, we ended by combining all of the potions in one container for a final show.

When we arrived the next day, I was met at the door by a group of children. “Jaden has something to show you!” they told me. “I made this for you,” said Jaden, an often-rambunctious child, as he handed me a bottle filled with a combination of what looked like water, oil and food coloring.  “When I went home yesterday I told my parents what we did and then I asked if I could make my own potions.  This was the best one. It was hard to find the right balance of water and oil, but I did!”

He turned to walk away with a proud look on his face. A moment later he shouted, “Oh, I figured out that it wasn’t unicorn horn we were using, it was Alka-Seltzer!”

Building Bridges
Two sisters, ages 9 and 7, had been hard at work for well over an hour to create a suspension bridge from newspaper and string.  They had unsuccessfully tried numerous times, yet they remained undeterred.  Carefully adjusting the strings, taping then re-taping, the girls moved closer to accomplishing their goal.  As the younger girl tested the bridge once again, her sister had a revelation.  “We can do this at home!” she exclaimed.  “We have all of the things we need.”  They momentarily forgot about testing their bridge as they excitedly discussed all of the different materials they could use.  Eventually they perfected their design but I couldn’t help but feel that the real success lay in the many hours of play yet to come.

Persistence: A Learning Club Story

We’re reflecting on the incredible contributions of our 2012-13 AmeriCorps Museum Educators as their service year comes to a close this week. This story was shared by Alexandra Fleagle, a member of the team that conducted after-school Learning Clubs for 12 community organizations in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls and engaged kids ages 6-12 in fun hands-on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) activities.

At Fox Point Boys & Girls Club, our Learning Club kids had challenging attitudes towards school, science, each other, and their own potential to learn. Over the first few weeks, we learned what they needed and slowly earned their trust. However, I wondered how they would respond to my lesson on acids, bases and the pH scale. It was content-heavy and involved “painting” with a solution of turmeric and alcohol. These kids made a mess with wet glue; what was I thinking giving them something that permanently stains?

It turns out I had nothing to worry about – the kids were engaged from the moment I began. I mixed vinegar and baking soda to demonstrate a neutralization reaction and talked about how chemical reactions create completely different substances. It was going so well that I took a risk and started talking about chemical formulae and ions. “Acids have high concentrations of H+ ions, while bases have OH- ions. When they come together, you have two ‘H’s and ‘O.’ Does anyone know what those atoms make?” Their eyes widened with excitement and recognition, followed by shouts of “H2O!” “Water!” “We just talked about this in school today!”

During the main activity, they experimented and discovered the pH of 10 substances. Juliette, who was often vocal about her dislike of school and science, was the most eager to get started. After a while I saw her sit down and asked if she had finished. “Let me tell you what I found!” she said, and proceeded to explain her results as well as her reasoning and hypotheses. During the post-experiment discussion, kids who usually didn’t talk were eager to share their discoveries, and we began to explore why they were important and how we use this science in everyday life.

Next, I introduced the art activity, explaining that we were trusting them to act responsibly with the turmeric. They rose to the occasion. Jayhoni had been one of the most cynical members of the group. It had been very difficult to engage, let alone impress, her with any of the activities. But as she was painting, I heard her exclaim, “This is awesome!” The rest of the Club agreed. It had been a very good day.