Science of Tomorrow, Today: Attending Touch Tomorrow at Worcester Polytech

June 14, 2015

We spent our Saturday at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They host an annual festival of science, technology, & robots called Touch Tomorrow.

We took the younger boys and had a wonderful day of learning all about science, computers, technology, robots and math.

We spent 5 hours walking around the campus checking out various exhibits and meeting new people.

I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the hands- on science & math lessons they had set up for kids mirrored what we do naturally at home when exploring science. That made me feel really good! On our way out as Alec had finished calculating how long we had been there I commented that it was a fun way to spend 5 hours learning about science and he heartily agreed.

Here are just a few things we learned, saw and did while checking out the festival.

One of the robots we saw today

snacking and checking out all there was to do; making a game plan

Alec got to take a turn moving this mini robot around; he asked a lot of
questions bout HOW it worked.

Evan taking a turn controlling a larger robot

The boys were shown how they could watch the computer screen
to see what the larger robot was seeing. It was explained to them how
the military uses these robots for scouting missions in places the
soldiers can't go.

Alec's turn controlling the larger robot

Watching two smaller robots that are programmed to follow the drawn line path

Trying out a new app under production that builds memory skills,
speed, accuracy and thinking skills.

Trying to balance the block using wooden beads;
it's harder than it looks!

building his own car

Evan went to build his own boat. He used tinfoil & Popsicle
sticks. He tested it out and it held 105 pennies (both my husband and
Evan agreed that it could have held more but Evan accidentally sunk it).
Evan told me he also counted out pennies by 5's so it would go faster