Inaugural Teen Science Night a Success

Teens participate in a science demonstration during Teen Science Night

The Discovery’s inaugural Teen Science Night, introduced on Saturday, March 12, had over 300 teens in attendance! Teen Science Night was developed this year as an annual event catering specifically to high school teens. The goal in creating this event was to provide an engaging night of hands-on learning activities specifically for high school students, while revamping the previous teens-only event, called The Discovery After Dark.

Since Teen Science Night was intended for high school students in our community to show them how much The Discovery has to offer, who better to plan this event than teens themselves? As soon as Teen Science Night was declared as the annual event for teens, staff and volunteers at The Discovery began outreach to local high schools, asking them to encourage teens to join in the planning of this exciting and educational event.

Thereafter, a Teen Advisory Committee, made up of high school students from the community, was selected to play co-host to this year’s first annual Teen Science Night. The Teen Advisory Committee dedicated their time to planning and organizing this event and developing activities to foster the learning of teens interested in the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) fields. In short, this event was created by teens, for teens!

Tickets for the event were set at a price of $5 per person to encourage as many teens as possible to engage in the educational and interactive activities of the night at an affordable price.

Attendees were able to experience galleries such as the new Inside Out: An Anatomy Experience exhibition and Monster Fish: In Search of the Last River Giants, a National Geographic traveling exhibition. The Discovery’s fun Educators conducted group demonstrations like the Leyden Jar Demo, which creates a human circuit. Teen attendees were also able to participate in activities such as a screen printing lab, where teens created custom Teen Science Night T-shirts, and test their skills at black light face painting and DIY marshmallow launchers. The Discovery also set up a custom-colored candy creation station, a photo booth, a post-it art wall, paper rocketry, and “selfie” scavenger hunt activities—all of which were included in the $5 admission price.

Teen Science Night was a major success resulting in more than 300 new fans of The Discovery. We can’t wait to deliver more hands-on learning opportunities in STEAM for this group in years to come!

The Discovery also offers a Teen Assistant Program designed for teens who want on-the-job experience. For more information, click here.