Do The Wave

This program elaborates on the exhibits in the Energy Playground. Depending on the grade level, varied activities will reveal the beauty of wave phenomena. Children will learn about various kinds of waves and how they are described.

Connections: Energy and Control, Matter and Materials,

Grades 3 to 8

eyeOn Buildings

eyeOn Buildings is based on the expectations for Visual Arts. Children will explore the vista from our fourth floor panorama window looking for elements and principles of design in the buildings and streetscape. They will learn to identify several architectural features in the neighbouring buildings and use their observations to produce an art piece.

Connection: Visual Art

Grades JK to 8

"Into-It"-ion, or The World Insight Out (Available January 2005)

Intuition is the immediate knowing of something without the conscious use of reasoning. This program samples several museum exhibits, providing activities and challenges that can provoke the satisfaction of discovery. Visitors will be asked for conclusions only, without speculating about explanations.

Connections: Geometry and Spatial Sense, Structures and Mechanisms, Oral and Visual Communication

Grades 1 to 8

Light Colours

This program focuses on visible light, a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Depending on the grade of the visitors, the program will introduce the notion of light as a wave, the spectrum of colour, colour vision, colour printing, infrared devices, geometry of shadows and optics.

Connections: Energy and Control, Visual Art

Grades 1 to 8

Material Matters

Look closely at the properties and purposes of the materials used in the construction of the museum building and the exhibits. Spaces not accessible to the public will give hints about the startling history of our building. Activities will be differentiated for the particular topic of each grade.

Connection: Matter and Materials

Grades JK to 8

Move It!

Much technology deals with making things move. A tour through the exhibits with movement in mind connects mechanics, hydraulics, pneumatics, acoustics, optics and electronics. But it all begins on the Geo-Terraces with some activities in transformational geometry.

Connections: Structures and Mechanisms, Geometry and Spatial Sense

Grades JK to 8

Playing By Hand

The activities selected for this program are anchored in having children solve problems by doing things with their hands, rather than seeing or listening. This program emphasizes interaction with exhibits that have a strong potential for hands-on learning. The interpreters will pose problems that can best be resolved by doing something, and then help interpret that experience into language.

Connections: Geometry and Spatial Sense, Energy and Control, Oral and Visual Communication

Grades 2 to 8

Techno-Poetry

Techno-Poetry captures the science and technology of the museum in dramatic fashion bringing together vocabulary commentary and graphic art. Writing will take the form of its subject to reveal understanding and connection. Colour, shape, line and rhythm become of the literate architecture.

Connections: Oral and Visual Communication, Writing

Grades 3 to 8

Breaking The Rules (Available late October)

Some rules were meant to be broken as the old cliché goes. Fracture science is very important in the design of virtually every object produced by industry. In this program, children will explore forces and impacts by considering how things break and what causes breakage. Then we'll go through the museum and see how the exhibits have been designed to prevent breakage so visitors can play with them for years to come.

Grades 2 to 8

GeeWhizOmetry

Look again at the museum and the technology behind several of the exhibits and you can find some familiar friends. Some of the world's most sophisticated technologies, developed right here in the Waterloo Region, are based on elementary geometry. This program will introduce the concepts and then leave it to the imagination.

Grades 3 to 8