ORANGE — NASA hopes to send man to Mars in the 2030s.
Shelby Senn and some others succeeded earlier this week.
It was all part of “Rockets: There and Back Again,” a traveling workshop designed by the Museum of Science, Boston and held at the Wheeler Memorial Library on Monday. Miriam Ledley, an education associate in traveling programs for the museum, supervised a pair of workshops to explain the engineering process and how it applies to the design of moving objects, like rockets.
“Everyone loves this one. It’s a great program,” Ledley said before 24 children trickled into the library’s downstairs activities room for the 2 p.m. demonstration. A hour later, 19 children showed up for the second demonstration.
The young participants first used balloons to craft air rockets to shoot up strings angled diagonally from a piece of equipment supplied by Ledley. Most learned a narrow balloon worked better than a round one at zipping up the string past photographs Ledley posted of the International Space Station, the moon, Eros (the closest asteroid to Earth), and Mars, in order of distance from Earth.
“Momma, I made it to Mars,” 8-year-old Shelby said to Sharon Senn during the 2 p.m. demonstration.
The budding rocket engineers then used arts and crafts supplies to make objects that could float in wind tubes representing Earth and Mars. The children used pipe cleaners, Styrofoam and weights to try to ease a tiny astronaut figure into the planets’ “atmosphere,” designated by pieces of tape. Ledley explained these engineering activities demonstrate the challenge of achieving space travel and returning safely from it. Many of the makeshift objects “crash landed” and Ledley encouraged the participants to figure out ways to get them to hover in the “atmospheres.”
Athol resident Jen Hubble, who brought 9-year-old Chance and 8-year-old Maximus to the 3 p.m. activities, said Wheeler Memorial Library’s programs are a great way to keep children’s minds active during the summer.
“It gives the kids an opportunity to problem-solve, to think outside the box and find their own solutions without parents’ interruption,” she said, watching the children tinkering with the supplies. “Anything from the Museum of Science is just amazing. … It’s a great way to interact and meet other kids.”
Each workshop lasted about 40 minutes.
Children’s Librarian Jason Sullivan-Flynn said the workshops were free to the library thanks to a scholarship program through the Museum of Science, Boston.
“It was a smashing success. Every single kid was engaged, they all had a good time, the kids who had difficulties were able to get help, and I think they also learned what the program’s goal was, to teach them how to experiment and how to keep trying,” he said.
You can reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 258. On Twitter: @DomenicPoli