Thirty-four families, including 56 parents and grandparents and 65 children, were treated to pizza, science experiments, and free books. Families could also enter a drawing for a $25 gift card once they completed a punch card after visiting each activity. Community partners including Audubon Community Nature Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension, James Prendergast Library and the Chautauqua Center also provided their own activity stations.

“This is always one of our favorite events and our families seem to feel the same. When surveyed, a past participant had shared she wouldn’t change a thing,” said Kelly Jose, PACERS Home Visitor at Lincoln School. “We know that children learn through their senses, and nothing is more engaging for the senses than science experiments and activities. So, a Family Science Night is the perfect activity. Each year, our staff decides what experiments and activities to conduct, ensuring it is something simple, easy to replicate, focuses on learning and, most importantly, is fun! These experiments and activities also have a basis in the evidence-based Parents as Teachers curriculum JCLC uses in our work with families and focuses on the different domains of development (language, motor, cognitive, and social-emotional).”

Stations included:

– Healthy Bodies Station – learning more about healthy bodies by seeing they the different parts of the body and create their own set of “lungs.”

Children are pictured using the maker space at the recent Jamestown Community Learning Council Family Science Night.

– Magnet Station – experimenting with different kinds of magnets and seeing how magnets attract and repel.

– Sink or Float Station – making boats out of aluminum foil and then testing to see how many pennies the boat could hold before it would sink. Families could also test different items to see which would float, and which would sink.

– Ooblek Station – mixing corn starch and water together to see how it moves and feels like ooze.

– Building Station – creating towers with cups and building using spaghetti and mini marshmallows.

– Weather Station – sensory activity in which children experienced making their own snow.

A child learns about the human body at the recent Jamestown Community Learning Council Family Science Night.

The JCLC also held a story time station and a photo booth for families.

“JCLC would like to thank our community partners and the Jamestown YMCA for helping us hold this wonderful event,” stated Krista Camarata, JCLC executive director. “The YMCA is the perfect place to hold the Family Science Night as it is centrally located for our families and so welcoming to the community and our community partners created amazing stations to highlight their missions.”

The Jamestown Community Learning Council was founded in 1990 as a pilot community school project in the Jamestown School District. The Parents as Teachers model was adopted in 2000. JCLC has home visitors in nine of the 18 county school districts as well as six, full-time PAT across the county. In addition, JCLC runs the Healthy Families Chautauqua Home Visiting program in Chautauqua County.