Science

Maritime Gloucester invites kids to a vacation week session about Fossils and Prehistoric Sea Life - part of a week full of educational sessions during February vacation! What can fossils teach us about prehistoric sea life and ancient oceans?  What is paleontology?  Children will examine three prehistoric eras and discover prehistoric creatures such as spiny trilobites, whale-sized fishes, and ferocious marine reptiles. 

Maritime Gloucester invites kids to a vacation week Octopus and Squid Printing Lab - part of a week full of educational sessions during February vacation! Did you know that some squid glow in the dark, cuttlefish communicate through color, and that a certain octopus can mimic a variety of sea creatures?  Children will investigate the cephalopods, a group of intelligent mollusks that includes the octopus, squid, nautilus, and cuttlefish. 

Our afternoon starts off with self-guided activities, challenges, or puzzles that lead us to our topic for the day. As a group, we'll observe, investigate, and compare wildlife, their adaptations, and the changes that they undergo in autumn. Participants may play the role of entomologist, ornithologist, astronomer, or even glaciologist throughout this series. Each experience will leave your young naturalist eager for the next session. And we always end with a tasty, thematic treat that the participants make!  This week we'll learn about the wonders of the Arctic.

Saturday Jan 26 is the Super Bowl of Birding at Joppa Flats – a birding competition to find the most birds on Plum Island in 24 hours! Which birds had the most frequent flyer miles? Which birds were the most elusive? How did THAT bird end up on the East Coast? All the answers will be revealed and we’ll also play games, practice with scopes and binoculars and make some take home bird treats!

What do you like to do in the fall? What do you think animals are doing? Before winter, most animals are very busy getting ready for winter. What are they doing? How does your heart rate compare to a woodchucks? Why can’t people hibernate? In this class we are going to learn how creatures develop survival strategies, play a migration game, avoid predators chipmunk style, and test our skills at camouflage, hibernation and keeping warm!

Come learn all about octopi at the next New England Aquarium Blue Discoveries Family Day! Learn more about the blue planet through art, science and storytelling at the in the Blue Discoveries Program. Programs highlight Aquarium favorites as well as Aquarium hidden treasures. All activities are included with Aquarium admission. This is a drop in program for select Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year. There will be opportunities to showcase environmental programs happening in schools or in local communities during a Blue Discoveries Family Day. 

This parent/child program is designed for the creative, curious, and active preschooler. Each 90-minute session offers a structured series of activities including original songs, movement, dramatic play, outdoor exploration, and a thematic snack. When it's time to go home, you'll receive coloring pages, song lyrics, vocabulary, a fun fact sheet, and a suggested reading list via e-mail. At this ISL, we'll learn to identify tracks in the snow and about the creatures that leave them behind!

This week's program will be about the ocean's Abyss! The abyssopelagic layer starts at a depth around 12000 feet and ends at the ocean floor or the 'Abyssal Plain' a completely darkened habitat under extreme pressure with pressure consistently just above freezing. The creatures that live at these depths have adapted to survive the extremes of the zone and include the angler fish, the viper fish and the giant squid.

The MIT Museum shows an exhibit of the art and science of holography with The Jeweled Net: Views of Contemporary Holography. The exhibition created in conjunction with the 9th International Symposium on Display Holography, co-sponsored by the MIT Museum and the MIT Media Lab. Over 20 holograms created by international artists, as well as several from the MIT Museum collections, will be on display, and will remain open to the public through September 28, 2013.

Get a jump start on your weekend with the Second Friday Program at the MIT Museum!  Second Friday Programs are FREE and are oriented for open exploration with opportunities to attend performances, demonstrations, and lectures through out the museum galleries.