Family Science Nights

"Exploring Extreme Environments"

Teacher and Administrator Information

On this page: Background and planning information, Newspaper article and photos from the 2017 Science Nights, Student Passport, Flyers for Publicity and Volunteer Recruitment

Event Planning Information

Background: Family Science Nights are held every other year in February, alternating with the Inyo County Science Fair. The event was developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science in conjunction with the Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative Education, and are now presented by Inyo County Office of Education. We have up to 12 stations where students and their families can come and explore learning about our local environment through fun hands-on activities. Students get a "passport" to get stamps for each station they visit.

Target Audience: Elementary to Middle School students in grades 3 - 8 and their families. All students must be accompanied by a parent. Younger siblings welcome!

Facilities and Equipment: The events are held in the gym, cafeteria, or multi-purpose room of the elementary school, and are open to the public from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. We will arrive at the school around 3:30 pm to set up all the stations. We ask that you provide about 17 tables and 34 chairs, and also about 10 volunteers to help staff the tables and clean up after. See below. We have all other equipment to set up the stations!

Volunteers: We will need you to provide about 10 volunteers to help run stations on the night of. They could be teachers, administrators, parents, high school students, or even mature 8th graders. The success of this event depends on having enough volunteers! Volunteers should arrive around 4:30 to help set up and learn how to run the stations, and should be able to stay through the event and help clean up. Your volunteers will need to bring their own dinner and drink, unless the school would like to provide that.

Setting/cleaning up the Gym: We will be arriving at 3:30 pm to set up the Science Night. We will need about 17 tables and 1-2 chairs per table set up around the space. Cleanup should take less than an hour, so we'll be out by 8:30 pm.