In celebration of Engineers Week, Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library is hosting an Engineering Bash next weekend in Waimea.
The free, family-friendly NASA@My Library event is being presented in collaboration with Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, three-time international and current Hawaii Rubik’s Cube Speedcubing Champion Matty Inaba, North Hawaii STEM Alliance, Parker School, W.M. Keck Observatory, and Waimea Elementary/Waimea Middle Na Paniolo Robotics Team.
Meet some of the island’s most talented students and professional engineers and discover the amazing world of engineering through indoor and outdoor hands-on experiments, demonstrations, and displays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 22.
Parker School will present an introduction to FIRST LEGO League and Junior FIRST LEGO League, showing attendees how to solve problems, create a prototype using LEGO bricks, and try programming a WeDo robot. Waimea Elementary and Waimea Middle Public Conversion Charter School students will share information about building and coding with LEGO, and offer a LEGO Mindstorms robotics demonstration and challenge, while Hawaii Preparatory Academy students will demonstrate paper engineering with popup books and paper mechanics.
Other event highlights include an air rocket design challenge, a robotic maze challenge, creating working gear cranks, using magnetism to move (and levitate) vehicles, a hydrostatic bearing demonstration, and more. Rubik’s Cube speedcubing champion Matty Inaba, a seventh-grader at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, also will be on hand to talk about speedcubing, explain the “science” behind solving the cube, and speedcube with children and families.
“Engineers Week is a great time to celebrate how engineers make a difference in our community, and in our world,” said Pam Akao, Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library branch manager. “We are grateful to all of our community partners for helping us spotlight the innovative contributions of engineers to our lives.”
The Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library also will offer other free activities during Engineering Week, which kicks off Sunday and ends Feb. 22. On Feb. 19, special children and family screenings of engineering-themed movies will take place with “Robots” at 1:30 p.m. and “San Andreas” at 5 p.m.
Ashley Spencer, youth services librarian, will present an engineering-themed Preschool Story Time with an engineering obstacle course activity at 10 a.m. Feb. 21. The library also will feature a special maker-space area on Feb. 20-21 with engineering activities provided by NASA.
NASA@My Library is an initiative to engage public audiences nationwide in informal and lifelong learning with the excitement of NASA exploration and discovery. Thelma Parker Memorial Public and School Library is the only library in the state selected for the program. Its also among just 75 public libraries in the nation taking part.
Info: Call 887-6067 or visit www.librarieshawaii.org.
