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Click on the YouTube video above to watch the full episode of Get Tech Smart.
In the above section Get tech smartFlo Nicholas sits down with Shana Hawrilczak, executive director and Peter Gustafson, deputy director of the SEE Science Center. The center has engaged visitors of all ages for more than 30 years with interactive exhibits of light, electricity, sound and more.
Flo Nicholas:
I am very excited to have you here. This is your chance to focus on what’s going on at the SEE Science Center, why everyone in New Hampshire needs to know what you have to offer, and why they should stop by.
Shana Haurilchak:
I feel the Science Center is one of Manchester’s hidden gems. People may not know about us, but we are one of the few science centers in New Hampshire, serving Manchester, Nashua and surrounding cities and counties. We have over 90 activities for families to play, we do demo programs, we think of birthday parties. It’s a fun place for families to get together and spend time together as a family.
Peter Gustafson:
The exhibition topics range from space, forces in motion, to dinosaurs. We have exhibits on the properties of light bubbles, we have exhibits that focus on the human genome, biology, simple machines, electricity and magnetism. It’s your typical exhibit topics for a science museum – mostly physics. And then we have the LEGOⓇ Billion Project, which is a Guinness Record-holding exhibit. It’s the largest permanent LEGO exhibition in the world, and it’s the billionth model in Manchester. It has racing trains, over 3 million Lego bricks, over 6000 Lego Mini Figures. We get the same response from kids and adults, it’s a big wow-thing.
Flo Nicholas:
Besides walking around and looking at exhibits, what are some STEM projects that kids can work on?
Shana Haurilchak:
We pride ourselves on the fact that all of our exhibits are handcrafted. We try to make the classes kid and family friendly so you can come and try them out so you’re not just looking at the demos, you’re interacting with those events and seeing how they work. We also do all kinds of live demonstrations where our program staff come out and you can use our Van de Graaf generator to make your hair stick or shoot air out of an air cannon. We have lots of hands-on programs for schools, which cater to different age groups and the types of things that get them excited about being involved in STEM.
Peter Gustafson:
We also have a mobile version of our programs so we can do chemistry in the classroom or a LEGO engineering and problem solving class with hands-on activities. We can go to the classroom and run the programs there.
Flo Nicholas:
It’s April, so parents are already looking for ways to get the kids out of the house this summer. What programs do you guys do?
Shana Haurilchak:
We run our own camps, but also offer instructors from other non-profits. We have a really fun spy camp. The kids can use their STEM skills to solve the puzzle. We also offer camps from the UNH STEM Lab. Media Power runs a camp where young children reject science theory and make their own films. And starting this year, we’re working with RMI’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute to bring a biotech camp to the science center. Two more camps with great partners include the Animation with LEGO camp, where you can design your own animated films using LEGO figures, and the camp with FIRST Robotics where you can build your own robotics.
Peter Gustafson:
They use the LEGO Robot Cube and program the robot to perform specific tasks, and the tasks change each year. It’s a little bit of coding and a lot of problem solving and teamwork. It is the first step towards the FIRST programs in their robotics competition.
Flo Nicholas:
Let’s talk about what’s happening in STEM, globally and locally. New inventions, new technology, so many new things are coming out all the time. How are you guys managing to keep up with this ever-changing STEM world and make sure the exhibits are up-to-date with all the evolving technology we see?
Shana Haurilchak:
I think a big part of that is working with our partners. For example, we recently partnered with the New Hampshire Tech Alliance to showcase their products of the year, because we want to showcase the many amazing innovations happening right here in New Hampshire. A lot of people don’t think of New Hampshire as a tech hub, but we have a lot of amazing tech companies here and we partner with them every year to showcase that. And then we’ve partnered with different companies for our programs for schools as well. So, for example, partnering with ARMI to develop some STEM programs for middle school-aged children to let them know that these careers are possible in the future. A lot of kids think that right out of high school, I have to go to Boston. And if you don’t, you can stay local and contribute to the wonderful things that happen in our area.
Peter Gustafson:
Those field trips with ARMI are introducing kids to bioengineering and related concepts. Yesterday we met with a colleague from Rockwell Automation and they are bringing automation to the auto industry or the food industry and now maybe to the bioengineering industry. There are opportunities like this for high school graduates, college graduates, PhDs — there are opportunities for all kinds of people, and we’re more than happy to tell kids about it.
Flo Nicholas:
There’s this concept that nothing is happening here—we have to go to Massachusetts or Maine or Vermont to do STEM. That’s why it’s so important to me to focus on organizations like yours that are doing amazing things. I want kids to have that kind of exposure so I can go into tech or do science or engineering. This exposure is very important early.
Shana Haurilchak:
I think you make a good point. Many times children see science as a subject they take in school, and those are not jobs, good opportunities. So giving the kids that opportunity to see what some real work is, helps open their eyes to all the little nooks and crannies they don’t even know exist.
Peter Gustafson:
Another one of our summer camps is called Camp Summer Science, and one of the modules in that camp is reverse engineering. The kids bring something from home and take it apart, so they learn how to use basic equipment, and then they can see what’s in the VCR or CD player or something like that, and it’s really eye-opening for them. You want to be able to use the tools, take something apart and figure out what the parts are inside and how they work together. Another module of that camp is prototyping, where they propose an exhibit to the science center and build a prototype. It was really fun to see what kind of exhibition topics the kids came up with. Being creative is important to technology and science, so much of what we do is empowering people and children to be creative, have fun, and pursue their passions.
Shana Haurilchak:
And I think a big thing that we always talk about is being okay with failure. Failure is a beautiful thing that we should all cherish more than ourselves because failure is where you learn. So getting kids used to imitation is okay if it doesn’t work out. You can try again, and you will learn something.
Flo Nicholas is an attorney, co-founder and COO of DEI, a diversity, equity and inclusion technology firm that offers a comprehensive intelligence platform. She runs Get Tech Smart and Get Resource Smart, which she shares with partners at The Granite State News Collaborative.
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