We offer after-school science classes once a week at schools throughout the school year and several locations during the summer.

From March 2012, we will offer classes at our own classroom site in Honolulu on Saturdays. The classes will be at 1415 Kalakaua Avenue, Suite 204, Honolulu, HI 96826 (the corner of S. King Street and Kalakaua Avenue), which is not far from the Ala Moana Shopping Center. If you are interested in these classes, please see information in Flyers. We welcome suggestions for different days or times than we are offering.

All of our classes are hands-on science.

For grades K-3, our classes focus on toy projects that teach students science concepts. For grades 4-6, students learn to work with diagrams and instructions to build robots. In some schools, we offer a grade 3 project class to work with science through experimentation. Grades 4-6 can also join this class.

Science toy building for K-3

The aim of this program is to stimulate students to learn and enjoy science.

Students make different toy inventions each class throughout the school year. Each hands-on toy project demonstrates a science concept. The toy helps the student relate the concept to the way the toy works. The students have fun while learning and they get to keep the toy at the end of the class to take home.

Through the projects, we learn such science concepts such as friction, air pressure, gravity, kinetic energy. Sometimes we repeat important concepts with different projects to reinforce the ideas.

The first of more than 30 projects for this 2011-2012 school year will be

• Rolling Guy
  This guy looks as funny as you make him. He has weird hair, strange eyes, big mouth, and he can roll across the floor. Maybe he is chasing you.
• Plate Spinner
  Watch the plates change colors as you spin them. Do they seem to make you dizzy?
• Bucket in the Well
  Check how a pulley can help get water out of a well. How fast can you fill your bucket and bring it to the top?
  
• Pellet Drop
  See how well you can control rolling pellets. Can you get them to fall through the holes faster than anyone else?
• Dome Shooter
  How high can you flip the marble? Can you make it fly into the dome? You might need to try a few times.
• Bobsled Race
  Build a bobsled and race it down the track. Does it go straight? How do you make go the way you want so you can win? Why?

Robot building for Grades 4-6

How do robots work? By building them, you see first-hand how parts interact. You will learn to understand diagrams, follow directions, use appropriate tools, and adjust gears, motors, parts as you put the robot together. This can tell you a lot about robot design.

The robots you build go beyond assembling plastic snap-on pieces. These robots are put together with screws, bolts, wires, motors, and specific parts.

It is important to test the robots for adjustments along the way. If you finish your robot and it works properly, we will let you take it home.

Project and robot building for Grade 3

We will build and design different projects each series, such as a motorized boat. How do you make it move without getting the motor and batteries wet? You need to think about the problems. If we have time, we might try building a robot too. This class encourages students to use their imagination and knowledge to create things.