Programs + Events

Spring and Summer Classes

LEVEL ONE:  Cade Museum to Go - All Ages

The Museum staff has developed a variety of outreach programs that introduce inventors and scientific concepts.   The Museum staff is bringing them to locations throughout our community including County libraries, schools and community centers.  These modules are perfect for all audiences from ages from 2nd grade through adult (we will tailor them to your group). If you're interested in arranging for us to come to you, please contact our Program Director, Patty Lipka at plipka@cademuseum.org .  Topics which are "ready to go" are:

Introduction to Polymers

Introduction to Electricity

Introduction to Black Light Science

Introduction to Alchemy

The Great Clean Up:  Material science of Hygiene Products

LEVEL TWO:  Cade Museum Kaboom Science - Ages 8-11

Kaboom Science classes are 90 minute hands-on interactive workshops for kids 8-11 which connect science and engineering concepts to invention in exciting ways.  Participants are encouraged to explore the probabilities of what they can do with raw materials in an environment that is encouranging and welcoming, where it's safe to make mistakes and building new connections is encouraged.  Kaboom Classes this summer and fall include:

Kaboom Science:   Endo/Exothermic Reactions

Hot and Cold Science in the Cade Museum Lab!  Learn about thermodynamics as you formulate your own exothermic and endothermic projects.  Experiment with dry ice, a little chemistry with physics.  Replicate one of Thomas Edison's "failed" experiments with refrigeration technology and more..

Kaboom Science:   Cracking the PH Code

Is it an acid or a base?   Join us in the Cade Museum lab and investigate the difference between acids and bases by conducting experiments with lemonade.  Create your own pH color wheel and make pH paper to test the acidity of other products you have at home.

Kaboom Science Art Supplies

Create Your Own art supplies (with a little chemistry and physics)  Roll up your sleeves, glove-up, and put on those safety goggles.  We'll mix pigments, earth materials and splash in your own creativity.  Make oil and chalk pastels, your own fluorescent water color cakes and finish with a tie/painted t-shirt created with paints you made in the lab.

Kaboom Science Glow in the Dark June

Black Light in the Lab!  Explore chemiluminescent, photoluminescent and fluorescent inventions and what you can create using a little black light science.  You'll make and take home glow-in-the-dark super balls, photo-sensitive art and a black light reactive t-shirt. 

Name: Kaboom Science Slime, Ooze and Bounce

Join us for an oozing, goozing good time in the Lab.  Roll up your sleeves, get on the safety goggles, and start mixing!  Create your very first chain molecular structure.  Bounce it, roll it, squish it, take it home.  We'll create three different polymers  from edible slime to Gatorade gobbers and slithering worms.

Kaboom Junior CSI

Become a  Crime scene investigator  "Gas" for fingerprints.  Dust and lift prints from everyday object like a pro.  Learn about Edward Locard and why we still use his ideas more than 100 years later to help solve crimes. You'll learn the difference between human and animal hair fibers as you add them to your collection bag. 

LEVEL THREE:  Invention Connection Series - Ages 11 and Up

Invention Connection workshops offer older students (ages 11 and up) thematic learning linking contemporary scientific topics with inventors, new and old.  These mult-day classes offer a more in-depth topic exploration, the opportunity to conduct original experiments and expand thinking in a sfe, well-facilitiated area.  Contemporary inventors and entrepreneurs may be invited to these progams to bring the science to life.

Invention Connection - Ready, Set. Glow

This three-session class provides an in-depth experience with the chemical and light reactions that make things glow in the dark.

We'll cover a different topic each day:

Photoluminescent - Things that glow in the dark

Fluorescent - Ultraviolet light

Chemiluminescent - Chemical and heat reactions that create light  Help us bust the myth of the glowing Mountain Dew bottle.  Will it glow or won't it?  Create your own glow sticks and learn why they work the way they do.  Experiment with luminol, a chemiluminescent reaction by creating a chemical fire fly in a test tube, and learn how it's used to detect clues at a crime scene that can't be seen with the naked eye.  Create light sensitive/changing paint and use it for your own artwork.  We'll highlight inventions by Adolf Baeyer, William Carter, Drs. Wiedemann and Schmid and how we still use their discoveries every day.  Make and take home photosensitive paper, black-light reactive putty, and a glow-in-the-dark super ball.

Invention Connection -Polymer Possibilities

Join us for this three-day session exploring polymers

Day 1:  The polymer revolution - what they are, who invented them and how we use them, and what's the future

Day 2:  Explore the "big three" polymers with hands-on, messy experiments.  You'll create nylon 610, bouncing putties, "floam" , and a food stabilizer made from sea kelp.

Day 3:  Edible polymers.  Create and eat polymer clay, bubble gum, fizzing worms and get the recipes to take home.

Invention Connection CSI

You've watched the TV shows, now do it yourself during our two day class on crime scene investigation

"Every contact leaves a trace"  The first rule of collecting evidence was invented by Edward Locard who opened the world's first forensic lab in France in 1910.  He established the rule for the 12 points of collecting fingerprints and linking them to the criminal.  Learn about early forms of collecting crime scene data.  Is it human or animal hair? Is it real or counterfeit?  From "gasing" for fingerprints to using magnetic dust to testing objects to see if there's blood or gunpowder residue - we'll try it all.

LEVEL FOUR:  There's Always a Connection - High School and Adult

Offered once this year, in October, "There's Always a Connection" is the highest level exploration of a specific inventor and the science related to it.  This multi-day program for older students and adults will encourage participants to work closely with contemporary experts, inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs.  The 2012 program will highlight the invention of Gatorade, including the Science of Sweat, Exothermic Reactions in Machines and the Human Body, Homeostatis and learning by Osmosis, and Make and Design your own Sports Drink.