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PRESS RELEASE

Sustainable Spring Break

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The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) highlights sustainability and the environment during Sustainable Spring Break, a week of activities, installations and workshops held during the April school vacation week on April 22 – 26.

On April 24, the fun will continue into the evening with Sustainable Spring Break Late, when NYSCI extends its museum hours to allow for further exploration of the Sustainable Spring Break projects and activities.

All activities are free with museum admission, unless otherwise noted.

Activities include:

  • Solar Cat: The Cutest Solar Panel Ever Made
    April 22 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    This giant, 140-watt, cat-shaped solar panel powers an adjacent interactive pedestal that features fun facts and diagrams about solar panels. Visitors can use Solar Cat’s energy to power up a model house, and can charge their phones using one of the two built-in USB ports. Solar Cat was created by NYSCI Designer-in-Residence Krystal Persaud, in collaboration with NYSCI Explainers Kristian Roopnarine, Estefany Gomez and Sophia Madonia.

  • The Pack, NYSCI’s New Video Game
    April 22 – 26; 1 – 3 pm
    This new video game created by NYSCI and Design I/O encourages young learners to use computational thinking to help restore the digital world of Algos to an ecologically balanced state.


  • Clean My Ocean
    April 22 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    Kids can design a tool to clean up our waterways in this drop-in workshop.


  • Reusable Wraps
    April 22 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    Museum visitors can create their own reusable food wrap using beeswax and fabric in this drop-in workshop.

  • Extreme Events, an activity by CUSP (Climate & Urban Systems Partnership)
    April 22 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    Visitors will explore the effects of climate change as rainstorms become heavier and more frequent across New York City. In this hands-on activity, visitors will learn about the different types of green infrastructure available for New York City residents, and design a public space with benefits for both the environment and the local community.

  • Urban Planning in Empty Spaces, an activity by CUSP (Climate & Urban Systems Partnership)
    April 22 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    Participants, acting as urban planners, are challenged to redesign a vacant lot, while considering different strategies that address the impacts of climate change, which is expected to bring hotter temperatures and more intense rainfall to New York City.

  • Screenings of PLUM Landing animations
    April 22; noon, 12:30 pm, 1 pm, 1:30 pm, 2 pm, 2:30 pm, 3 pm & 3:30 pm
    Museum visitors can view special screenings of PBS Kids’ PLUM Landing animations, where they’ll meet Plum, a space traveler from the planet Blorb, and explore the deserts of Australia, the mangroves of Belize, the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the jungles of Borneo. Free PLUM gift bags (while supplies last).

  • Carbon Sponge Tour & Soil Demo
    April 22, 1:15 pm; April 26, 1:15 pm, 2:15 pm & 3:15 pm
    This special demonstration will explain to visitors how soil stores carbon, and how that can help our environment. After the demonstration, visitors can see these ideas in action by taking a tour of Carbon Sponge, an outdoor garden exhibit by Designer-in-Residence Brooke Singer.

  • Meet the Solar Cat Team
    April 22, noon – 2 pm; April 24, noon – 2 pm & 5 – 7 pm
    At 12:15 pm and 1:30 pm (and 6:15 pm on April 24), the team behind Solar Cat will discuss the technology, research and creative process behind the project. From noon – 2 pm, visitors can play a game of “Climate Change –True or False,” or get creative and design their own solar panels.

  • BioBus
    April 23 – 26; noon – 4 pm
    Families can travel into worlds smaller than the eye can see when they board the BioBus, the world’s only state-of-the-art microscope facility housed on a solar-powered 1974 transit bus. The BioBus is equipped with a $75,000 microscope and staffed by scientists.

  • Join the Bus Roots Movement
    April 24; 4 – 7 pm
    Museum visitors can meet Designer-in-Residence, Marco Castro Cosio and his NYSCI Explainer collaborators to learn how a renovated ice cream truck can become a mobile garden and help people explore the benefits of green spaces and urban food distribution. At 5:30 pm, Marco Castro Cosio and the NYSCI Explainer collaborators will discuss the Bus Roots project.

  • Nature Focused 3D Movies
    In Backyard Wilderness (noon & 2 pm daily, plus 5:45 pm on April 24), viewers can view the unexpected wonders of nature in the backyard of a suburban home, featuring deer, salamanders, wood ducks and coyotes. In Flight of the Butterflies (3 pm daily, plus 6:30 pm on April 24), viewers will follow monarch butterflies as they make one of the longest migrations on Earth and arrive in the remote mountain peaks of Mexico. $6 adults; $5 children, students and seniors, plus NYSCI admission. (Members: $4 per person; free for Family Explorer members.)

  • Nature in Photographs
    Daily, 9:30 am – 5 pm
    The Adirondack River is explored through black-and-white film photographs by Kristin V. Rehder in Through the Narrows: Meditations on an Adirondack River. In Celebrating Water: Photographs by Heidi Fuhrman, water in its diverse forms as ice, freshwater and fog are highlighted in images from the New York City region. Images of fruit fly gestation, tropical fungi and Tanzanian wildebeest are among the images showcased in Princeton’s Art of Science 2014.

Also this week:

  • Gazillion Bubble Show Preview
    April 25; noon & 1 pm
    In addition to the Sustainable Spring Break activities, NYSCI will host a special preview of the popular Gazillion Bubble Show, which is currently playing at New World Stages in Manhattan. Mind-blowing bubble magic and soapy masterpieces, along with audience participation, will make museumgoers smile and laugh at all the bubble fun during this 15-minute performance. Limited capacity; tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis on day of performance.

  • Bionic Me
    Daily, 9:30 am – 5 pm
    With hands-on displays and full-body experiences, this exhibition explores the inventive and ingenious medical and industrial breakthroughs that have helped enhance the human experience. Visitors can move a ball with their mind, manipulate a robot arm, race against a Paralympian, use night vision to see in the dark, and explore how technology can provide camouflage and make you invisible.

About The New York Hall of Science

The mission of the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is to nurture generations of passionate learners, critical thinkers and active citizens through an approach called Design, Make, Play. Design, Make, Play emphasizes open-ended exploration, imaginative learning and personal relevance, resulting in deep engagement and delight in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. NYSCI was founded at the 1964-65 World’s Fair and has evolved into New York’s center for interactive science.


For more information, visit nysci.org or call 718-699-0005.
Follow NYSCI on Twitter and Instagram: @nysci, and on Facebook at: facebook.com/nysci.



MEDIA CONTACT
Mary Record, New York Hall of Science
mrecord@nysci.org
718-595-9123