Expanding Your Horizons

Workshop List:

Cirque du Circuits! We use electricity every day, but how often do we think about how it works? In this workshop, you will get a lightbulb to light up using only a lightbulb, battery, and a wire. Students will then get to make an LED wearable pin to take home! Clean Air Detectives Calling all young detectives! Unravel the mysteries of air quality with an adventure around campus to uncover sources of air pollution! Then discover the impacts of air pollution on health by inflating real (pig) lungs. Coding for Fun! Create an explosion of colorful bubbles or a delicate snowflake using Ninja like coding skills. Discover your inner coding power! Disease Detectives Be a detective and a scientist all at once! Your job is to investigate a zoonotic disease outbreak in Texas. Put together the clues by looking at insects, running a gel to test for a virus or bacteria, go over patient symptoms, and then give a report to the city so they can take action. EggStruction How does an egg survive being launched from a chicken, shipped in a carton, or dropped off the edge of a building? Come learn about design, architecture, and construction by exploring shapes and materials used in structures while building your own Egg Protection Device. Will YOUR egg survive the fall? Get Hands-On with Soil! Did you know different soil types feel different in your hand? Come learn how to distinguish 3 different soil types using the Texture-by-Feel method! How to be an Ecologist Do you like animals and want to see how a passion for nature can turn into a career? Come learn what it is like to be an ecologist! For this workshop, you will get an opportunity to learn from female scientists about ecology, biodiversity, and how to think like a scientist. You will handle real research specimens and field equipment and will walk away with a deeper understanding of our natural world. There are so many cool animals and plants out there, come explore them with us! EYH 2023

It’s in our Genes! DNA is the genetic code that makes us who we are. We share 99.9% of our DNA with other humans, so why do we look so different? Join us to explore the story of our DNA and see just how similar we really are! In this workshop, we will compare the traits we do or do not have in an interactive activity to learn about genetics. Learning to Launch! Let's explore Newton's Laws and launch into learning! In this workshop, students will use rubber-band launchers to send disks flying and soar in to understanding how things move! Let it Glow! We will be explaining fluorescence in household items and the natural world, after which participants will be able to explore some real-world applications of fluorescence with glowing plastic brains, fluorescence watercolor painting, and dyed fluorescent carnations that participants can take home. Mighty Meteorites Students will be creating craters and measuring the size of both the crater and the meteorite. Students will develop an understanding of how craters are formed and why they are different sizes. Squishy Science: Berries with a Side of DNA Cells are the basic unit of life and make up all plants, animals, and bacteria. Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is the molecule that controls everything that happens in the cell. DNA contains instructions that direct the activities of cells and ultimately, the body. In this hands-on activity, students will demonstrate how DNA can be isolated from a strawberry using common household materials. Squishy, Sticky, Slimy and Super Useful! Hydrogel Chemistry and Properties Students will work hands-on on the preparation and investigation of the properties of hydrogel systems with volunteer help. These activities will include the crosslinking of polymer networks to make slime and bouncy balls using glue and the use of hydrogels for water absorption such as in diapers. Students will learn how preparation parameters can be adjusted to result in materials of different properties. They will also learn about the application of such materials in medicine, agriculture, cosmetics and consumer products. Travel the World Through the Eyes of an Insect From entomophagy (that's eating insects!) in southeast Asia and cricket farming in the U.S. to giant hissing cockroaches in Madagascar and parasitic botflies in South America, come learn about insects from different places around the world. Get the chance to hold a live bug and maybe even eat one!