Motion Mania is coming to Full STEAM Ahead

By Sally Miskavige, Grand Forks Children’s Museum Board Member

Force, motion, energy, kinetic energy – get your physics hats on! Height, slope, angle, gravity, weight…all factors that affect motion, speed, and distance. How can you make physics fun for children and let them learn through trial and error, observation, exploration, and play? One answer…Motion Mania!

Good news, the Grand Forks Children’s Museum has rented Motion Mania from the Ontario Science Centre for the upcoming Full STEAM Ahead event, October 1-8. We are excited to bring Motion Mania’s ‘All About Energy’ exhibit. This is a two thousand square foot exhibit features two unique experiences: Build Your Own Coaster and Energy Tracks. These unique exhibits are structured to reinforce the scientific process through design, using the trial-and-error analysis, testing, observation and then experimenting by trying a new design – all parts of the scientific investigative process.

Build Your Own Coaster

Choose from thirty different coaster parts to design your own coaster. Children will be able to create different pathways for their coaster and then test their pathway with a ball. If you change the angle of the slope, will the ball move faster? What happens to speed when you add a curve? So much fun to create, test, observe and then design again. The underlying principles are all related to physics.

Energy Tracks

How do variables affect motion? With Energy Tracks, children can test out several different variables to see how these variables affect speed and motion.

Full STEAM Ahead will be held at the Grand Forks Curling Club, from October 1-8. Admission is free. Motion Mania is one of many STEAM-related exhibits being offered at Full STEAM Ahead by the Grand Forks Children’s Museum.

Hope you will join us…be prepared to have fun, experiment, and hopefully inspire young physicists.