Delaware Science Outreach for Libraries & Groups

DASEF Library Programs & Local Outreach

Check our calendar for Saturday and Eyes on the Skies Programs as well as Family Days!

Librarians, Early Childhood, or Other Community Instructors:

DASEF offers programs at our Outpost in Smyrna, or we can bring our Science Outreach experiences to your Library, Early Childhood Center, or other Community Group for up to 25 students at a time. A classroom space is required to facilitate this traveling program at your school or site. With the exception of basic classroom supplies, all materials for the program are provided. Adult help is required for some of the hands-on activities, so parent chaperones are encouraged to participate (See our Chaperone Policy). Finally, check out our Scheduling Page for pricing and other details. 

Our Offerings are described below, but all can be adapted to meet your specific curriculum needs!

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Learn More About Our Offerings!

13

Kaleidoscope Wonders

Kaleidoscope Wonders

Has your little scientist ever taken apart a kaleidoscope? You and your child will explore kaleidoscopes using a tabletop model and make and reflect a geometric design into infinity! Also make and take your own simple kaleidoscope viewer. You can even check out a few dazzling books while you're there. What fun!

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12

Insects Aren't As Yucky As You Think

Insects Aren't As Yucky As You Think

Did your child ever get "bugged" by an insect? Come to the library to study some friendly ones. Your child will learn about the life cycle of a ladybug and the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly, with little hand-sized models. See our collections of dearly departed insects and work with your child to create their own insect model. Take home a picture of an insect to color. Plus you'll find insect books by Eric Carle - need we say more?

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11

Wee Weather Watchers

Wee Weather Watchers

Calling all mini-meteorologists - it's time to learn about the weather. Your child will "be" the liquid in a thermometer, as they learn about temperatures and how to dress for them. Have fun making a take home wind sock and a simple kite to experiment with wind. And just think about all of the wonderful weather books at the library! The forecast is for interesting science with a good chance of fun!

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10

Make a Date With Dinosaurs

Make a Date With Dinosaurs

Too young for a scary trip through Jurassic Park? Our dinosaurs are much more tame. Complete a dinosaur puzzle, make and take a dinosaur mask, build your own dinosaur with Clics Building Blocks, and learn a little about meat and plant eaters with a bucket of our prehistoric pals. Bring your camera for a photo-op with our interactive Stegosaurus, Sarah. You'll rooooar for more!

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9

Trees, If You Please

Trees, If You Please

There is more to trees than meets the eye! Learn about all those parts of a tree you don't see, use a hand lens to take a closer look at leaves, find matches for the ones from the same tree, and make a model of a tree from real parts. Finish your day by "being" a seed as it goes from its hiding place in the soil to a tree with new seeds of its own. You will even find a treeful of books to read. Tree-rific!

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8

Constructing Your Own Fun

Constructing Your Own Fun

Get right down on the floor and build something! Use our pieces to make your own structure, and make a roller coaster that will give a ball a looping thrill ride. Take the challenge to build the tallest tower - quickly, before it falls! And take home a picture of one of the world's greatest bridges to color. Build a great day with us!

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7

Up Up in the Air

Up Up in the Air

It's time for little pilots to take flight! You and your child will learn about how things move through the air by folding and flying amazing paper airplanes and helicopters, building a simple kite from paper and straws, making a straw glider, and testing our hover craft that can float on a layer of air. As they say, "The sky's the limit"!

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6

Sounds Like Science

Sounds Like Science

Looking for a new way to stimulate your students' sense of hearing? We'll bring a batch of materials and activities to let them explore the world of sound. They will play our water glass piano, guess the mystery sound makers in a series of jars, see how water carries sound waves across our Dancing Water Bowl, test the differing pitches of our Boomwhackers, and make and take a rhythm shaker (each child brings an empty plastic soda bottle). Your room will come alive with sounds!

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5

Magnet Tricks for Young Scientists

Magnet Tricks for Young Scientists

Calling all "attractive" youngsters with a "magnetic personality"! It's time to come to the library to learn lots about magnets. You'll start by seeing and hearing a read-aloud of our Magnets Big Book. Then use special object collections to discover which materials magnets attract, test various magnet shapes to see their magnetic fields, play with attracting and repelling poles of circular magnets, go "fishing" in the magnetic fish pond, and make and take home a refrigerator magnet. This science will stick with you!

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4

Around the Coral Reef

Around the Coral Reef

Bring your young undersea explorer to the library for a trip to a coral reef. You and your child will learn about forces, assemble a beautiful coral reef puzzle, use your imaginations to make a coral reef and its inhabitants from Shapescape building pieces, color some fish and other life from the coral reef, and make and take home a coral reef scene as you learn about this fascinating ecosystem. No scuba gear required - just an inquisitive mind!

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3

Butterfly Math

Butterfly Math

Butterflies can't really do math, but your young mathematician can! You and your child will play the Butterfly Symmetry Game and decorate a coffee filter butterfly, practice grouping and counting with plastic butterflies, put on our kid-size wings and identify geometric shapes, and make pattern caterpillars. Bookworms aren't the only insects that can have fun at the library!

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2

How Things Move

How Things Move

Give your young engineer some challenges in design and construction that make things move! You and your child will build a structure with moving gears, assemble and test a model vehicle, build and experiment with magnetic gears, and make and take home your own climbing creature or tumble wing glider. Dust off your thinking caps - you're going to need them!

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1

Discovering Fossils

Discovering Fossils

Can't take your students to a fossil dig site? Bring our fossils to your classroom. Your students will learn how fossils were formed and assemble a floor model of a Protoceratops dinosaur skeleton. They will match fossil imprints to the mammal foot that made them, see real fossils and petrified wood from our collections, and they'll each make a model of a dinosaur skeleton to take home. Let them explore the world beneath their feet!

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