Category: All About Newton

The Discovery Museums Continue Popular

First Friday Nights Free! Program for 2013 – 2014

Special “Meet the Scientists” Event on October 4

 The Discovery Museums are pleased to announce their First Friday Nights Free! program for 2013-2014, offering free admission to both museums along with extended evening hours on the first Friday night of the month.

 Between October 2013 and June 2014, both the Children’s Discovery Museum and the Science Discovery Museum will be open until8:30pm, with free admission beginning at 4:30pm.  Families are invited to picnic under the stars when the weather permits, and enjoy the Museums at night.

Special program October 4: Meet the Scientists

During the season’s opening First Friday Nights Free!, the Museums will be host to several scientists participating their ongoing Portal to the Public program, a national network of museums bringing scientists and the public together in face-to-face interactive programs. The “Meet the Scientists” event will take place from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Friday, October 4. Visitors will have the opportunity to talk to real scientists and do hands-on activities that they have developed, including:

Laura Proctor of MathWorks – will lead participants in performing numeric sorting of numbers to determine patterns that would be helpful in sorting hundreds of numbers, similar to how a computer might apply an algorithm, or pattern, to finish a task.

Professor Melissa Kosinski-Collins of Brandeis University – will be exploring how scientists tag molecules in a cell using fluorescent markers. Participants will “search” for hidden items in a cell model.

Dr. Sarah Sundelacruz of Tufts University – visitors will explore how scientists grow tissues to help our bodies heal.

Dr. Jocelyn LeBlanc from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School – will show how the brain is the most remarkable part of the human body through “tricks” demonstrating the amazing ways the brain can adapt.

Dr. Dimitra Pouli of Tufts University – will demonstrate the multifaceted nature of light.

Dr. Mathangi Krishnamurthy of Fitchburg State University – will lead an activity showing how we can affect the speed/rate of chemical reactions, namely decomposition, by using chemical substances called catalysts.

 Suanna Selby Crowley, PhD, RPA of Boston College – will lead several activities exploring the textures, components, and facts about archaeological soils and sediments and how they help tell the story of ancient sites.

Dr. Casey Wade of Brandeis University – will explore the relationship between chemistry and electricity.

First Friday Nights Free! is an important component of the Museums’ Open Door Connections program, which provides opportunities for those who face a variety of barriers—financial, geographic, developmental, or cultural—to experience the Museums. The program is sponsored by Emerson Hospital with additional support from the local cultural councils of Acton-Boxborough, Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Harvard, Hudson, Leominster, Lexington, Littleton, Maynard, Waltham, Wayland and Westford.

Collections for Local Food Pantries

The Discovery Museums will collect non-perishable donations for Open Table of Concord and Maynard and the Acton Food Pantry on Fridays as party of this special family promotion.  Suggested items include peanut butter, canned proteins, coffee, tea, cereal, pasta sauce, juice boxes, jam/jelly, canned vegetables, and baking mixes.