Mad About Science Day At Bishop Museum

Bishop Museum 's third annual Mad About Science Day will be held Saturday, March 31, 2007 , from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the Great Lawn and surrounding areas throughout the Museum campus. From earth sciences to medical sciences, to out-of-this-world space sciences, kids and their parents will enjoy dozens of activities to explore and discover.

Learn about archaeology, marine biology, entomology, and other scientific areas of research. Admission is only $3 per person, with Museum members and children 3 and under free.

Mad About Science Day offers a chance to experience science Bishop Museum in a vast array of ways: from special "behind the scenes" tours of the Museum's natural science collections to telescopes on the lawn for solar viewing during the day and moon watching at night. Featured events this year include a lecture on Global Warming by biodiesel expert Kyle Datta in the Watumull Planetarium at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Astronomy presentations will be offered throughout the day in the Watumull Planetarium and in the inflatable Starlab Planetarium.

Ongoing demonstrations at NOAA's Science on a Sphere will be featured and visitors are encouraged to explore the Museum's permanent exhibit, Global Warming, which opened in November 2006. Many other hands-on activities from the Bishop Museum's own Holoholo science outreach program will be available for children to experience and explore.

Among the participants in this year's festival are the Hawai'i Water Environment Association, Pacific Biodiesel (they create fuel for vehicles out of recycled food waste), and the O'ahu Invasive Species Committee (they search out weeds that kill native plants and destroy them). Kids can make their own wax hand sculptures courtesy of Wax Hand Union, and Heather's Inflatables will have some special jumpers to bounce off any excess energy.

Admission to Mad About Science Day is available at a reduced rate of $3 per person; Museum members and children 3 and under are free. Admission to the event includes access to all of Bishop Museum 's exhibit halls and galleries featuring the special exhibitions, Lost Maritime Cultures: China and the Pacific and Pauahi: A Legacy for Hawai'i. The new interactive Science Adventure Center will also be open.

Specific tours include the following: Natural Science Collection tours are offered between 1 and 3:30 p.m. only; The last Watumull Planetarium program begins at 5:30 p.m. and the last Starlab inflatable planetarium show begins at 7 p.m. Seating and tour participation is limited for these programs and visitors may get their admission passes in advance (free with Museum admission) for both the Natural Science Collection tours and the Watumull Planetarium shows at the seating/tour pass booth on the Great Lawn.
Solar views on the Great Lawn with volunteers from the Institute of Astronomy will be offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ; evening telescope viewing with volunteers from the Hawaiian Astronomical Society will be offered from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. (weather permitting, as is always the case with sky watching.) -- www.bishopmuseum.org