Tulsa Air and Space Museum offers after-school "tinkering" classes
BY SARA PLUMMER World Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
1/15/13 at 2:45 AM
The Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium's classes give elementary students a chance to exercise their engineering and science muscles after school.
For the next eight weeks, students will be tinkering and building in the Exploring Engineering program on Mondays while others will explore the science of air pressure in the Magic of Science program on Tuesdays.
The after-school programs, which run from 4 to 5:30 p.m., are geared for second- through fifth-grade students.
Both classes started this week with about half a dozen children in each day's program.
The classes started in the fall of 2011 at the request of parents, said Judy Moody, director of academic development.
"Parents asked if there were any science-based after-school programs because their kids weren't into sports," Moody said.
TASM had already started a popular robotics club previously, so with the museums' existing resources and exhibits, Moody said, it was able to start offering the Magic of Science class in 2011 and then last year added the engineering class.
The eight-week program costs TASM members $90 or non-members $100. The after-school programs are offered every fall and spring semester.
Both classes incorporate at least one aspect or exhibit of the museum each week, as well as robotics, she said.
"Usually second-, third-, fourth-graders have an interest in engineering," Moody said, although they may not even recognize it. "Tinkering, you take things apart and put things together, that's engineering, but by a different name."
Vicki Agee's three children, ages 10, 9 and 7, are all enrolled in this semester's engineering class.
"They love it. All three love to build. They like to use their imaginations," she said.
This is the first after-school program for the three, Agee said, but all three have participated in the museum's week-long summer camps before.
"They've done robotics, they've done tinkering, rocketry camp," she said, and the programs and classes are good alternatives to just watching television or playing video games when they're not in school. "It feeds into their interests."
Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium
Where: 3624 N. 74th East Ave.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: Admission is $7 to $12; memberships are $65 to $1,000. Costs of programs vary.
For more on the museum, its future programs and classes, see tulsaworld.com/tasm, or call 918-834-9900.
Original Print Headline: Museum offers 'tinkering' classes
Sara Plummer 918-581-8465
sara.plummer@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Eryn O'Brien (left), 10, Kaitlyn O'Brien, 10, and Dakota Agee, 9, work on an activity using Straws & Connectors during the Exploring Engineering and Magic of Science after-school programs at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum on Monday. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World
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