Tag Archives: camp

Movie Monster Maker Round Up! Week 3 Recap

Published by on in Education
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The final week of our newest camp, Movie Monster Maker, ended with a bang and several parents concerned about the welfare of their children. (DON’T WORRY MOM! That toothpick wound is just a trick! A little movie magic, if you will.)

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Everyone had a great week trying out some monsters, making stop motion animation shorts and investigating some monster mythology (and terrifying their parents at pick up).
To see this week’s movies, check out the links below! I think my favorite is the mermaid luring the sailor onto the rocks.

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Also, are you a grown-up who wants to have fun like this? Are you interested in becoming horribly mangled or mangling your kids (with make-up only, people)?! Keep an eye out for some new listings on the family events and classes page at hmns.org. We are going to offer some make-up tutorials on October 8th, in conjunction with 2nd Saturdays.

 

 

 

Educator How-to: Learn to Draw a Celtic Triquetra

Published by on in Anthropology
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At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, we know that people are as much a part of natural science as rocks and dinosaurs. That’s why we love social studies and maintain exhibits like the John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas and the Hall of Ancient Egypt. We find the development of societies fascinating!

The historical Celts, a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age Europe, ranged over a large swath of land reaching as far west as Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula, east to central Anatolia, and north to Scotland. The Celts used a three-cornered symbol, known as the triquetra, to adorn everyday items and important ritual objects. Similar tri-cornered symbols are seen in the artwork of many ancient civilizations. It is speculated that the symbol illustrates the uniting of the past, present, and future or birth, life, death. As Christianity spread through Europe, the triquetra was used to help new converts to understand the concept of the Trinity.

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It is really simple to draw this ancient knot-work symbol. All you need is paper, a compass, an eraser, and some markers.

First, using a compass, draw a circle of at least 3 inches in diameter in the middle of your paper. Make sure to leave room around the circle, as the resulting knot will be slightly larger than the initial circle. Make sure that you do not adjust the compass after the circle is drawn.

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Next, use a pencil to make a point on the circle at the twelve o’clock position. Then, place the point of the compass on this point and use it to make marks where it crosses the circle on each side.   

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Now, place the point of the compass on one of the marks made in the previous step. It doesn’t matter which one. Then, draw a semi-circle within the initial circle. It should start at the twelve o’clock point and end in the lower quarter of the circle. The arc does not need to be continued outside of the circle. Make another arc, identical to the first one. The two arcs should cross at the center point of the circle. If they don’t, check to make sure that the compass setting has not been changed.

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Then, placing the compass point on the lower tailing end of one of the arcs, mark off another tic on the bottom of the circle.celtic5

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Now place the point of the compass on the bottom mark and draw an additional arc from side to side within the circle.

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You will now need to enlarge the diameter of the compass a bit. Place the compass point back onto the marks made in the upper half of the circle. From each point, draw another arc within the circle, and extending a little beyond its border. It is important to make sure the arcs are extend a bit outside of the circle so they’ll meet up when the arcs are all drawn.

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Pick a point where one of the knot strips intersects another, and make it pass over the other, erasing the lines from the underside from within the “over” strip. The next pass for the knot strip, following the same strand, will be to go under the next intersection, so erase appropriately. At this point ,you may erase the initial circle and the arc marks.

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Now your trisquetra is complete! Color it in! See designs like this and others this summer in the Medieval Madness Xplorations Summer Camp.

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Kids Explore STEAM Careers with HMNS Outreach

Published by on in Science
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Inspiring a child takes effort, time, passion and heart. It’s why we do what we do.

At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, discoveries are made daily. The sounds of learning fill our hallways every day, from the gasp of wonder from a kid stepping onto the Morian Overlook for the first time or the squeal of delight as a butterfly in the Cockrell Butterfly Center rests on a child’s shoulder. Those sounds are all the evidence we need to know we are upholding HMNS’ mission, its commitment to education.

For the kids that may not be able to get to the museum, there is HMNS Outreach. Our variety of programs brings HMNS straight to the community, visiting hundreds of schools and organizations each year and reaching more than 100,000 children in 2015 alone. The ultimate goal is to instill in these kids a love of learning that will carry them to new heights in their careers and throughout their lives.

Here are some of the many STEAM careers that HMNS Outreach can inspire a child to reach for.

Veterinarian

The TOTAL Wildlife On Wheels offers an extraordinary look at animals of all kinds. Students get an up close and personal encounter with wildlife ranging from snakes and frogs to birds and mammals.

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Students in Turner High School’s Vet Tech program observe the wing of a Ringneck Dove, which travels as part of the TOTAL Wildlife On Wheels Vertebrates program.

Forensic Scientist

A presentation of Cleanup Crew from the Bugs On Wheels program will cover the process of decomposition and the return of vital elements to the Earth. These principles of decomposition are crucial to forensic scientists, who use arthropods and fungi to study crime scenes and gather more information.

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Entomologist Erin Mills shows off a Giant African Millipede during a presentation of the Bugs On Wheels program Cleanup Crew.

Physician

Body Works is our newest set of programs in the Science Start family, and these presentations focus on the anatomy and capabilities of the human body. From the brain to the heart to the skeleton, each of these presentations will provide students with a comprehensive overview of what we can do with what we’ve got.

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Geologist

A Chevron Earth Science On Wheels program like Know Your Rocks is immensely useful for future careers in Geology. A students’ knowledge of the rock cycle and the differences between different types of rocks and fuels can be vital in fields such as the energy industry.

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A student discusses the properties of two different specimens with his classmates during a presentation of Know Your Rocks.

Astronomer

A visit from the HMNS Discovery Dome includes more than 40 different shows about a range of topics, including a classic planetarium show, The Starry Night. One of today’s kids could discover a new planet, a galaxy, or even a black hole, and the Dome provides a great foundation for an interest in astronomy.

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Students at Reagan High School file into the Discovery Dome for a screening of Cosmic Collisions, a show narrated by Robert Redford about different outer space encounters between celestial objects.

Anthropologist

An interest in foreign cultures can take you all over the world or even back in time. Anthropologists study the history of humanity, and Docents To Go programs such as Native Americans or Ancient Egypt provide students with an introduction to different communities and societies.

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Volunteer Bob Joyce shows an arrowhead and arrow used for hunting by Native Americans.

Chemist

Try a ConocoPhillips Science On Stage program like Cool Chemistry, which discusses different chemical reactions as well as the properties of polymers and liquid nitrogen. It’s a great glimpse into what chemistry is all about!

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Educator Carolyn Leap discusses the properties of a polymer during a presentation of Cool Chemistry.

Artist

Students at Johnston Middle School have had the opportunity to sketch animals from the museum’s TOTAL Wildlife On Wheels and Bugs On Wheels programs over the years, and they’ve produced some spectacular pieces, like the crocodile skull below.

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These are just a few of the many STEAM careers that are natural extensions of the concepts discussed in HMNS Outreach. We are proud to play an important role in the lives of students all over the Houston area and beyond, and we are honored to have the opportunity to inspire the next generation.

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A student draws Peanut, a Costa Rican Curly Hair Tarantula, as Peanut cooperatively sits still.

To book HMNS Outreach, email outreach@hmns.org, call us at the number listed on our site, or fill out this form online. We look forward to working with you!

School’s (almost) out for summer: Time to xplore with our Xplorations Summer Camps!

Published by on in Education
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Summer Camp is here again!  As we busily prepare, buying all the weird odds and ends it takes to run camp here (everything from plastic spoons to sheep eyeballs), I thought I would share a bit about camp with you.

Xplorations Summer Camp 14Recently I gave a presentation to fellow HMNS staff members about Xplorations Summer Camp, just a little informal FYI. I was surprised at how many of them stopped me later in the day and said, “I didn’t know that ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________.” 

The No. 1 item they commented on was the sheer size of our summer camps. We have approximately 550 campers per week at HMNS in Hermann Park. This means that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, we are larger than your average elementary school each week for the eight weeks of camp. 

Because of this, we take safety very seriously … which brings us to the second most surprising camp fact I shared: Staffers were also amazed to learn that all the full-time Youth Education Programs staff regularly has First-Aid, Epi-Pen injection, and Heart Saver/AED training. We have found that parents really like getting their campers back in the afternoon in same condition as when they signed them in in the morning. To that end, we feel like we should be prepared for a whole range of potential problems — everything from a Band-Aid solve-able boo-boo to a zombie apocalypse.

Our number one goal is to keep our campers safe!  A close second is to have fun while learning.

And because we are always learning new things around here, I learned how to make this infographic with some of the other numbers and statistics our staff found interesting about Xplorations Summer Camp. 

Summer Camp InfographicIf you haven’t signed up your little scientists, you’d better do it quickly.  Spots are vanishing before our eyes! 

Camp is an excellent, hands-on way to introduce kids to topics in science. They learn, have fun and are able to explore themes and careers that can help them change the world. Perfect for kids age 6-12, sign up for Xplorations Summer Camps today! Click here to see our full catalog of age-specific camps.