Science festival focuses on space with nod to eclipse

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Children’s Library Associate Chelsea Hatfield reads to the children during one of the three storytimes.

Festival attendees watch as one of the rockets is launched.

Silas Everett and mom April Everett create some solar eclipse art during the festival.

Library Associate Laura Mowry looks on as Aarush and Dhruv work on their phases of the moon using Oreos project.

Children’s Library Associate Kim Dinkins., instructs Allie Hale and Greyson Reid, how to make a paint a night light.

Michael Rector, left, and David Rector, prepare one of the rockets for launching.

CHINA GROVE — In conjunction with the 2024 North Carolina Science Festival and in recognition of the April 8 solar eclipse, a star party was held at the Frank T. Tadlock South Rowan Regional Library on Kimball Road in China Grove on April 6.

Branch Operations Manager Brooke Taylor organized the event, orchestrated the activities and gathered the team, “making it happen,” said East Branch Supervisor Sydney Smith-Hamrick, who helped at the event for Taylor, who was unable to be there Saturday.

“She’s awesome,” she said of Taylor, as she told her of work, getting the event together.

The festival is an annual event aimed at “spreading awareness about the possibility of people entering careers in STEM, especially science, mathematics, engineering and technology. The big focus is space,” Smith-Hamrick said. Each year the festival has a different theme and this year’s is Sun and Moon, “because of the eclipse,” she said. 

While the event is geared more toward children and getting them “thinking about going into careers as scientists, being scientific thinkers, we opened it to everybody,” Smith-Hamrick said.

The special theme was implemented in all of the activities that were offered throughout the afternoon, providing something for all ages to enjoy.

Scattered throughout the library were various stations for attendees to visit and take part in including a scavenger hunt, the chance to create their own moon poem, working puzzles dealing with outer space or learning about the different phases of the moon using Oreos or there was Lego building, nightlight making and eclipse art and more.

April Everett and son Silas participated in the artwork station, and when asked about attending the festival, April said, “we love our library” to which Silas agreed.

Three different story times were held with three different library assistants, Melissa Gephart, Kim Dinkins and Chelsea Hatfield, each taking turns reading a book, all based on science.

“It has been a wonderful time,” Hatfield said.

Outside, there were a variety of games set up where participants could try their hand at events such as building a tower to the stars, having fun with planet toss or alien bowling, craters to the moon, which consisted of a small pool simulating the moon and was filled with flour and cocoa. The participants threw balls into the pool, which was designed to show the impact an asteroid can have when it hits the moon, said Library Assistant Liz Gerometta. 

As the event was coming to a close, a special launch of five rockets was held, courtesy of David and Michael Rector, who built the rockets and launched them for the crowd.

Those who wanted to had the chance to get an up close look at the rockets prior to the launch. Everyone was directed to a safe distance and then encouraged to help with the countdown, which they willingly did and cheered just as loudly when the rockets went up and safely landed.

As people first entered the library, they registered for the event and were given a bag containing information about additional resources to search concerning science and the eclipse, a listing of books for juveniles, additional activities taking place at the local library during April and details about the history of the N.C. Science Festival, which it said was “founded in 2010 and is the first statewide science festival in the United States.” 

It was a well attended event as Smith-Hamrick said, “there’s been a lot of people through here. It’s been fun.”