November Homeschool Day: Ocean Odyssey
Nov
13
10:00 AM10:00

November Homeschool Day: Ocean Odyssey

Earth’s oceans are home to many unique ecosystems and creatures. Students and guests will explore deep sea vents, ocean currents, and sharks and squids!

ACTIVITIES

Ocean Zone Explorers - Guests will go on a deep sea adventure and complete a scavenger hunt around the museum that takes them to the different zones of the ocean

Surfacing Submarines - Have you ever wondered how a submarine works? Guests can participate in our Surfacing Submarine activity, where they will experiment with and learn about mass, density, and chemical reactions through a hands-on activity. They will also explore how buoyancy affects a submarine's ability to ascend and descend.

Color Changing Squids - Guests will learn about how squids use chromatophores to change color by making a color-changing squid thaumatrope

LEARNING LABS

Oil Spill Cleanup (Ages 5-7, 10:30am - 11:00am) - Students will learn about oil spills, how they affect the environment, and learn how to clean up oil spills using a common household ingredient

Blown Away (Ages 8-10, 11:30am - 12:30pm) - Students will create a model ocean ecosystem and explore how ocean currents affect these ecosystems

Deep Sea Vents (Ages 11-17, 1pm - 2pm) - Students will create model hydrothermal vents and investigate how the transfer of energy affects solids and liquids

STEM Scholar Hour (2:30pm - 3:30pm)

Shark or Squid Dissections - Students will follow along with an instructor to dissect their own sharks (or squids)!

STEM Scholars and their families have the opportunity to spend an extra 45 minutes after each Homeschool Day with Science Mill staff, taking deeper dives into the STEM theme of the day along with a variety of STEM principles, STEM careers, and at-home STEM projects.

For this year’s STEM Scholar Project, participants will experience the process of designing a new exhibit for a science museum. From February to April 2025, scholars will conceptualize, plan, and create models of their ideas during STEM Scholar Hour, which they will then present during the last Homeschool Day of the year. Who knows, your kiddos may one day see their exhibits on the Science Mill museum floor!

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Snow Day 2025: Frosty Fun Fest
Jan
18
10:00 AM10:00

Snow Day 2025: Frosty Fun Fest

We are SNOW excited for this year’s Snow Day! Join us on Saturday, January 18th, 2025, as we sled into a flurry of fun science activities, including a snow pit with 28 tons of real snow, a mini sled derby, a snowball slingshot, the Fros-TEE Challenge, warm treats, and frosty science demonstrations. Bring your mittens, friends, family, and curiosity for a day full of wintery excitement!

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February Homeschool Day: Superhero Engineers
Feb
12
10:00 AM10:00

February Homeschool Day: Superhero Engineers

This Homeschool Day, guests will explore different natural disasters, and the engineers that are responsible for designing and creating structures and tools that can help communities survive against them. Activities include building structures that can survive earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides just to name a few!

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October Homeschool Day: Coding & Robotics
Oct
9
10:00 AM10:00

October Homeschool Day: Coding & Robotics

Coders and Engineers are needed this Homeschool Day! Students and guests will create and program robots of all kinds, even human robots!

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES (10am - 2pm)

Cardboard Robots - At this station, guests will create their own robots out of cardboard and craft materials!

mBot Mini Golf - At this station, guests will control an mBot to navigate a mini golf course!

Code a Human Robot (Make a Lemonade) - Try to code a human robot to make a glass of lemonade. What seems like a simple task is complicated by the hilarious ways that robot language and thinking is different from our own. Can you translate commands into a form that robots can’t get wrong? Schedule: 11:00am and 12:30pm

LEARNING LABS

Ages 5-7 Lab: Mr. Ozobot’s Neighborhood (10:30am - 11:30am) - Students will learn about inputs and outputs in regards to coding by drawing a neighborhood that an ozobot will drive through.

Ages 8-10 Lab: Spy Mission: Micro Chat (11:30am - 12:30pm) - Students will learn about inputs and outputs by coding a microbit to send messages to each other through radio transmission.

Ages 11-17 Lab: Micro Mission (1:00pm - 2:00pm) - Students will learn about inputs and outputs and computer hardware and software as they explore a tiny pocket sized computer or microcontroller called a Micro:Bit. They will explore the MakeCode Software and create their own programs for the Micro:Bit.

STEM Scholar Hour (2:30pm - 3:30pm)

Get an up-close look at some seriously cool robots! Robotics team coach Bradley Gray will present the JC Joules competition robot and talk about complex systems and inputs and outputs. Then, scholars will join our Exhibits Coordinator George Clement to explore the Mars Rover exhibit and talk about exhibit design considerations for robotics.

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Weekend of WOW!
Jun
8
10:00 AM10:00

Weekend of WOW!

Guests will put themselves in the shoes of paleontologists by completing fossil specimens. Then, they can use their creativity and critical thinking to imagine what that creature looked like in its ancient environment! Drop by the Science Mill for a fun, science-filled Saturday! Entry comes with museum admission.

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Pollinator Palooza
Apr
20
10:00 AM10:00

Pollinator Palooza

Pollinator Palooza returns to the Science Mill on Saturday, April 20 from 10 am to 2 pm. Through up-close encounters and hands-on activities, learn why monarch butterflies – along with bees and bats – are crucial to our local ecosystem. Three cheers for pollinators: Butterflies! Bats! Bees!

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