Last week, IFLS librarians had a chance to tap into the knowledge and experience of Boyceville Library staffer Marguerite Blodgett, who has more than 200 hours of training from NASA about creating informal learning opportunities about outer space.  If you missed this workshop, you missed a fun day, filled with easy-to-recreate hands-on activities.  But don’t despair!  Marguerite provided us with excellent handouts about the session (look for the Exploring the Solar System heading)–along with some bonus handouts on making comet ice cream and stomp rockets.

Marguerite urged us to realize the important role libraries can play in encouraging students’ interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields by giving kids a chance to enjoy, explore, mess around, and not be afraid of tests or making mistakes.  Some cool ideas:

A great demonstration of how we see planets, and ways that we can get a better picture of what they look like.  Here, librarians orbit the planets with their PVC telescopes.