The Liberty Science Center is buzzing with the sound of major construction projects and crackling with space gas hot enough to conduct electricity. The science museum unveiled a pair of new exhibits last week, Electric Space: Bolts, Jolts, and Volts from the Sun and ENGINEER IT!, which educate visitors about, respectively, the gases and weather of space, and the dynamics of architecture and design. Both exhibits will be on display at the museum until April 30. The more popular of the two, ENGINEER IT! allows visitors to design boats, buildings, bridges, windmills and airplanes. The exhibit consists of a series of workstations, complete with design principle tutorials and the necessary building materials. The engineering exhibit is a highly interactive workshop. At separate stations, visitors are encouraged to build a small-scale arch out of foam blocks, construct earthquake-proof structures with Lincoln Logs and Legos, and design sailboats that can withstand the current of a small wave pool. According to Science Center literature, the exhibit is designed to invite visitors to investigate the design and engineering process in an atmosphere that promotes creativity, experimentation and problem-solving. Three major testing areas provide visitors with answers to questions about water, structures and wind. The water projects allow guests to experiment with buoyancy and propulsion by creating a speedboat, a rubber-band-powered paddleboat or a sailboat with various sails and keels. The Walk-On Earthquake Platform shows future designers how to erect the buildings that will withstand a simulated earthquake. Guests are provided areas to build desktop bridges, with the help of a specialized computer program, that can support the weight of something as heavy as a truck. In the wind section, a walk-in wind tunnel allows visitors to see the effects of wind on the wings of a plane. Large foam wings are available for children to put on their arms and see how lift and drag are related to flight. In addition to the three testing areas, ENGINEER IT! has videos running that instruct children on the principles they are experimenting with, as well as some that encourage engineering as a career choice. The engineering exhibit was designed and created by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Ore. Electric Space takes a closer look at the effect space weather has on technology on Earth. The exhibit also examines the effect solar winds cause light streaks to appear in the night sky, better known as the Northern Lights. The exhibit breaks the complexity and power of space weather conditions into their simplest parts. Visitors explore the properties of matter in its various forms (solid, liquid, gas and plasma) and learn the effects of the planet’s magnetic field. Electric Space was developed by the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado and the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. Next on the science museum’s schedule, beginning in June, are a new set of exhibits. Animal Eyes: What Do Animals Really See? examines how different and similar human vision and animal sight are, while Scream Machines: The Science of Roller Coasters demonstrates how the amusement park favorites use the principles of physics to operate.
New LSC exhibits involve bridge-building, space, electricity
