Sci-Port would love to be at your next event!

Table Top Fun

Our interactive Table Top science activities are the perfect way to invigorate any festival, fair, or other school or public event, whether you are hoping to reinforce a particular science topic or to simply create a fun, educationally-valid experience!

All Outreach demonstrations are correlated to Louisiana State Standards and last about 30 minutes.

Time per program: 30 minutes        Accommodates: Up to 60         Fees: 1^st Program $150, each additional consecutive program $125

• Stuffee’s Lunchbox (PreK – 3^rd) – Stuffee, our six-foot tall blue-haired doll, shares his digestive system with your students. They will discover MyPlate, the USDA’s new healthy eating guidelines, by classifying the contents of Stuffee’s lunchbox.
• Pop Fizz (PreK – 4^th) – Witness crazy chemical reactions during this introduction to the three states of matter.
• Young Isaac Newton (3^rd – 6^th) – Explore and learn about Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

Table Top Fun activities come in two categories, Standard Programs and Deluxe Programs which contain a more supply-intensive make-it-take-it component.

Standard Programs

Time per program: 60 minutes        Accommodates: Up to 100      Fees: 1^st Program $150, each additional consecutive program $125

• Skulls and Fur – Learn about animals native to Louisiana! By looking at their skulls and fur, examining their adaptations and defenses, students will learn what these animals need to survive. Touching allowed!
• Be a Conductor – Find out if the human body conducts electricity!
• Straw Rockets – Learn about rocketry and propulsion by building your air-powered straw rocket.
• Planispheres – Make your own star chart to take home!
• Whirly Birds – Spin into the history books with the world’s earliest helicopters, creating a modern day version to take home.
• Celestial Conga – Model the cosmic dance as the earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth.
• Buzzing Balloons – Learn about sound with this fun activity.

Deluxe Programs

Time per program: 60 minutes        Accommodates: Up to 100      Fees: 1^st Program $200, each additional consecutive program $175

• Ooey Gooey Gloop – Students will use inquiry skills to create a polymer that can be taken home.
• Oreo Cookie Moon Phases – Why does the moon’s appearance change over time? You will learn why in this delicious activity.
• UV Bracelets & Sunprints – Make a bracelet to detect UV radiation and create a picture using ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
• Organs on Parade – Learn about the structure and function of the brain, heart and lungs by comparing and contrasting between sheep, shark, cow and human organs.

Our Outreach Labs consist of hands-on interactive programs designed to engage and motivate students to explore science concepts, ask questions, and solve problems. All programs are correlated to the Louisiana State Standards.

Basic Labs

Time per program: 30 minutes

Earth Science

• As the Crow Flies (K – 2^nd ) – Students will explore map reading while interacting with a floor-sized map of Louisiana and learn how to identify the four cardinal points of a compass.
• Water Cycle Boogie (1^st – 5^th ) – Dance, act out and interpret the water cycle to the tunes of the Banana Slug String Band.
• What’s My Watershed (3^rd – 5^th ) – Students will investigate watersheds: what they are, how our understanding of them is essential to pollution control and how ultimately our own health depends upon theirs. 

Life Science

• Skulls and Furs (PreK – K) – Learn about animals native to Louisiana! By looking at their skulls and fur, examining their adaptations and defenses, students will learn what these animals need to survive.  Touching allowed!
• Six Plant Parts (K – 4^th ) – Your students will dance and sing as they build a plant and learn about plant part functions.
• Animal Defenses (1^st – 2^nd ) –  As an extension of our Skulls and Furs program, students will discover how animal adaptations help them survive. Note: Hands-on interaction with animals depends on their health and availability.
• That Spine of Mine (3^rd – 5^th ) – Compare characteristics and explore the nature of animals that are part of the vertebrate family. Note: Hands-on interaction with animals depends on their health and availability.

Math

• Ooey Gooey Gloop (PreK – 3^rd ) – Students will use inquiry skills to create a polymer that can be taken home.
• The Fishing by numbers (Pre-School – 2^nd ) – Students will use inquiry skills to create a polymer that can be taken home.

Physical Science

• Magnificent Magnets (K – 3^rd ) – Observe some ordinary interactions of magnets. Explore the concept of lines of force and magnetic fields while the concept of “opposites attract and likes repel” is stressed.

Extended Labs

Time per program: 60 minutes

Earth Science

• Weather Works (2^nd – 5^th ) – Learn about the weather while watching us make clouds, rain, lightning, tornadoes, and other weather phenomena!
• Louisiana’s Living Map (3^rd – 5^th ) – Students will explore mapping while locating major geological features, historical places, resources and bodies of water in Louisiana.
• Rockin Geology  (3^rd – 8^th ) – Students learn the three basic rock categories, the rock cycle and then learn how to identify rocks using geologic methods. 
• Pollution Solution (6^th – 12^th ) – This program helps students understand the effects of pollution on the watershed and ways they can protect and clean up watersheds.

Life Science

• Dynamic DNA (6^th – 8^th ) – Discover what makes you different from everyone else. Students learn about genetics as they isolate their DNA and build a Watson and Crick model of DNA.
• Pignapping: Scoping out the Clues (6^th – 8^th ) – Your students will use forensic skills and microscopes to examine hair, skin and more as they crack the case of Sci-Port’s missing Guinea Pig.
• Brainworks (7^th – 12^th ) – Learn the anatomy and physiology, or structure and function, of the brain while comparing and examining a human and sheep brain. Your students will touch a real humans brain.

Physical Science

• Pop Rockets (4^th – 8^th ) – This program will introduce students to the concept of Independent and Dependant variables. Create a chemical reaction to launch a film canister rocket. Students will collect data and use it to make adjustments in their rocket.
• Power Up (4^th – 12^th ) – Students will explore the science and engineering concepts behind electric circuit, challenging their creativity and imagination to do some fun problem solving exercises. The program is centered around the concept of building electrical circuits from the very basic to the very complex depending on the groups grade level and prior classroom preparation.

• Hydrogen Powered Cars (6^th – 12^th ) – In this lab, your students will use fuel cells to explore electrolysis, fuel cell efficiency and Ohm’s law while creating hydrogen powered cars. If time allows, solar energy in reference to producing hydrogen will also be explored.

Itty Bitty Outreach is a fun, traveling science program designed for Little Learners! Your class will get the chance to become Itty Bitty Scientists and explore the world of science from chemistry to Marine Biology and everything in between within a 30 minute interactive educational program.

Earth and Space Science 

• Journey into Space – Sci-Port will take your little ones on a journey into space as they become Itty Bitty Astronomers and explore the stars.
• Smart as a Rock – Your class will become Itty Bitty Geologists as they observe, sort, and weigh Sci-Port’s favorite rocks and minerals.
• Digging for Dinos – Are your little learners Itty Bitty Paleontologists? Learn all about dinosaurs as your students dig up chocolate chip “dino fossils” and make dinosaur finger puppets.
• Making Fossils – Your Itty Bitty Paleontologists will get to create a fossil from different casts and molds of creatures that lived long ago.
• Which Way the Wind Blows – Your Itty Bitty meteorologist will explore the mysteries of the wind while performing a read aloud and constructing a pinwheel to take home.

Life Science

• Birds and Worms – Your Itty Bitty Zoologists will discover the value of protective coloration or camouflage and its importance for survival in the animal kingdom by playing a game where they pretend to be birds in search of colored worms for food.
• Silly Snakes – After Identifying patterns they see in everyday life including those in nature your Itty Bitty Zoologists will assemble their own snake using a variety of colors and shapes.
• Terrific Turtles – Your Itty Bitty Zoologist will learn all about turtles including seeing a live box turtle, hearing the story of Yertle the Turtle and then make their own turtle to decorate and take home.
• The Rainforest Game – Your Itty Bitty Biologist will discover the wonders of rainforests and the diversity of the elements they contain along with the interactions of these elements and how they maintain a balance.
• Wildlife Adventure – This program provides the opportunity for young learners to become Itty Bitty Zoologists for the day. With the help of SciPort’s animals, little learners will explore Louisiana wildlife, feel animal furs and take an animal mask home to color and wear!
• How does Your Garden Grow – Your Itty Bitty Botanist will learn about the six parts of a plant using song and dance. They will build a plant made of these parts and learn about plant’s functions and how they are used as food.
• Cute as a Ladybug – Your class will become Itty Bitty Entomologist as they explore the world of insects and learn all about one very popular and well known insect the ladybug. The class will listen to a read a loud about ladybugs and make their own ladybug to take home.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider – Your class will get to be Itty Bitty Entomologists as they learn about spiders. They will create and discover the parts of a spider while performing a read aloud of The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.
• Why so Shy? Butterfly – Your Itty Bitty Entomologists will learn about how insects hide by making their own butterfly, as we read How to Hide a Butterfly by Ruth Heller. They will practice their emergent skills such as cutting and coloring.
• Fishing by Numbers – Itty Bitty Marine Biologists will catch fish using a magnetic “fishing pole.” The fish will be sorted and counted according to size and color.
• Ocean Life Adventures – Itty Bitty Marine Biologists will compare salt water and fresh water ecosystems and discuss the animals that live in each while using their five senses to conduct observations.
• The Journey of Germs – Your class will get to become Itty Bitty Microbiologists as they explore the gross world of germs and how they can easily be spread from one person to another. To fight the spread of germs the children will learn and practice hand washing techniques.

Physical Science 

• Bubble-ology –Your Itty Bitty Chemist will have the opportunity to explore the science behind the bubble, how bubbles are created, and create their own bubbles of all sizes.
• Pop Fizz – A demonstration which provides your Itty Bitty Chemists with the opportunity to observe some chemical reactions that create “pops” and “fizzes”.
• The Shape of Things – Your class will become Itty Bitty Engineers as they learn to identify basic shapes that they see and use in everyday life and assemble their own shape by using the characteristics they have learned.
• Straw Rockets – Your Itty Bitty Engineers will get a chance to be Rocket Scientists for the day! They will construct and launch their own straw rockets. After everyone has successfully launched their rockets the program will end with an exciting and trilling launch of one of Sci-Port’s rockets!
• Float or Sink – There are objects in our environment that sink in water, where as others float. This program will allow your Itty Bitty Physicists to discover the concepts of sinking and floating and allow them to predict, test, and observe details in an experiment.
• Color My World – Rainbows are one of the world’s greatest mysteries! While learning about colors your Itty Bitty Physicists investigate and discover the properties of light.
• Sound of Music– Your Itty Bitty Physicists will learn the science of sound as they use unconventional items as instruments to tell a rhyming story and explore sound by feeling and seeing vibrations, practicing patterns with a drum and learning new rhythms with shakers.

Watch your classroom curriculum come alive when we bring science and math or space science exploration galleries to you through our Science Carnival Outreach. Sci-Port staff provide a preparatory teachers’ workshop, resource materials, student-involved demonstrations and a structured environment for classes to interact with the exhibits.

Space Journeys

Time per program: 60 minutes        Accommodates: 250 students per day—50 per hour                 Age Group: 5^th – 12^th grade

A curriculum-based adventurous exploration of space science featuring 15 exhibits and interactive programs. Interactive exhibits include constellations, planets, astronomy, motion and gravity. Included Interactive Exhibits

• Living in Space – Astronaut Suit, Space Food
• Working in Space – Robotic Station, Space Gloves, Tools in Space
• Motion & Gravity – Gravity Well, Planetary Slingshot
• Planets & Astronomy – Starry Night, Earth Puzzle
• Our Sky – Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring

PLUS… Choose one of the following interactive programs

• Stargazers (3^rd – 12^th) – Gaze at the stars, the moon, planets, constellations, star clusters, and even galaxies in our Star Lab.
• Peek at the Planets (3^rd – 12^th) – Learn about the planets, their properties, and where you would find them in the sky.
• Baby Bear (PreK – 3^rd) – See the stars as they move across the night sky and hear stories about the
• Be an Astronaut (PreK – 12^th) –  Create your own space food, discover how astronauts sleep and try on a space suit.
• Planetary Shuffle (1^st – 8^th ) –  Students will learn about the planetary orbits, discover the vastness of the solar system, and walk a scaled model of the Solar System. They will also discover how the spin of the Earth creates a day and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun creates an Earth year.