Dozens of gingerbread houses, beach scenes, and log cabins omit the sweet scent of gingerbread that lofts through the Science of Gingerbread exhibit at the Discovery Science Center. It’s a medieval castle, though, that has caught the eye of many visitors; with its trestle towers, complete with dragon guardian.

It’s a first-time entry for mother-daughter team Mariah and Jean Smith. Mariah, 23, an optometry student at the Southern California School of Optometry lives in Santa Ana, and wanted a fun activity for her and her mom while she was in town for Thanksgiving from Reno, Nev.  Four days of work went into the culinary creation.

Apart from some sugar cement burns and faulty dragon detail work, the castle came off without a hitch. Mariah says she “couldn’t do it alone,” even though she is the more “artsy” of the pair. Mariah loves baking and making crafts in her spare time, and will be at the official opening of the Science of Gingerbread awards presentation, open to the public, at 7:00 p.m. at the Discovery Science Center. For more information, visit www.discoverycube.org.

Gingerbread houses coated with sweets
Drizzled with gumdrops and holiday treats
They come in all shapes, structures and sizes
Creative, colorful and competing for prizes

Over 20 Gingerbread Competition entries arrived yesterday, which can only mean one thing:  our annual holiday exhibition, Science of Gingerbread, is now open!

Just in time for the holiday season, we’re showcasing toys & games from the National Toy Hall of Fame. Let’s Play Railway!, a giant replica of BRIO’s famous wooden toy Engine, Cattle Wagon & Caboose, is also featured inside of the holiday exhibition. Also showcased will be Mexico: Festival of Toys, an international traveling toy exhibit.

Hands-On Holiday Interactives Include:

• Kitchen Science Activities
• “Science of Snow” Stage Show
• Decorating Demonstrations
• Award Winning Gingerbread Displays

Visit Discovery Science Center before January 3 to experience all of the hands-on holiday fun!

More About Science of Gingerbread >>

What happens when you combine Skeletons, Mexican Toys and Science? Spooky Science at Discovery Science Center of course! This year’s annual Spooky Science exhibit is truly unlike any other. We’ve combined three exhibitions into one bone chilling, scientifically thrilling, cultural experience.

At the core of Spooky Science is a new exhibit called Head to Toe: All About Your Body. Discover how science principles flow like blood beneath your skin as you keep pace with a simulated heartbeat using a hand pump and identify smells to learn about the process your body goes through to detect scents.

Second, bringing Halloween tradition to life, is Mexico: Festival of Toys, which gives us an inside glimpse into the Mexican celebration of “El Dia de Los Muertos” (day of the dead). The exhibit spans generations and highlights the role of the toy in diverse and colorful expressions of folk art. Incorporating this into Spooky Science, Festival of Toys provides an interactive look at how Halloween and skeletons are valued by another culture.

Finally, sending a chill through your bones and bringing a Halloween haunt to the exhibition is the Spooky Science: Skeletons theme. Around every corner, you will find all kinds of bones, skulls, joints and body parts – each with a hands-on lesson to teach. The final thrills are held in a Spooky 3-D Skeleton Maze. No need to worry about the little ones, this maze is spooky enough for haunt-seekers, but friendly enough for all ages! Spooky Science is now open and offering haunts and chills for the whole family. Only at Discovery Science Center – now through November 8!

As the end of summer nears and the new school year approaches, Labor Day Weekend is your last chance to find out why summer at Discovery Science Center has been so exciting. Our summer exhibit, Robots and Us, is open through Labor Day – September 7 – less than a week away! If you haven’t made it down to see what robots can teach you, be sure to visit this weekend. The Robot Arm is still ready to take you on in a race of shapes and there are plenty of Jitterbug robots left to be created. In addition, our Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home exhibit is also open until October 4. As we enter fire season in Southern California, it’s the perfect time to teach the little ones about fire safety. Finally, the Science of Hockey, our newest permanent exhibit, is a great way to prepare for the new hockey season, which is right around the corner! To make the most of our last weekend of summer, purchase your tickets online here!

So, what’s in store for Fall at DSC? Head to Toe, a new temporary exhibit all about the science under your skin, opens October 3. Check out skulls and skeletons, brains and bones, eyes and ears, and livers and lungs to find out how they all function. Sound creepy? It gets even spookier on October 17 when our annual Fall exhibition, Spooky Science: Skeletons, opens. This year’s theme is “El Dia De Los Muertos” and is sure to spook you and inner scientist out! Finally, FSEA’s annual Pumpkin Launch will take place on October 31^st at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium. Join us for flying pumpkins, a pumpkin carving contest and other family-friendly activities.

Stay Connected! Follow us on Twitter and become a Fan on Facebook!

Robot vs Human

On August 15 and 16, Discovery Science Center visitors will get the chance to experience and visualize the ultimate game of chess! Karan Kamdar and Peter Shikli from RoboTeamX, a company committed to the study of robotics, have developed robots who can actually communicate with each other. On a giant chess board, 16 robots will compete against 16 humans in a game of chess. Who do you think will win?

According to Karan Kamdar, Co-Founder and Chief Engineer of RoboTeamX, chess is “a proof of concept demonstration of a team of intelligent and communicating robots that achieve complex tasks by working together in a range of different scenarios.” Through inter-robot communication, the 16 robots are able to process information and then send it to each other, in order to produce a coherent and thought-out decision as to what step to make next in the game. The robots are not controlled by a larger power, but rather have compact engines built into their controllers which allow them to analyze the game from their own point of view and send out signals to each other. In text version, a screen will show the audience what the robots are saying to each other. These chess robots are the “world’s first truly autonomous giant scale robotic chess set that is built on the idea of synergism amongst machines.”

Robotic Chess Board

The main goal of Shikli and Kamdar is to send a message to kids who are currently stuck in the two-dimensional world of video games: technology and science can be fun and interesting! By creating an amusing way of teaching science to kids, Shikli and Kamdar are instilling a possible motivation within the kids who come to visit their chess game. In doing this, they are producing a three-dimensional world full of the kid-friendly aspects of robotics, which starts with this chess game.

Shikli and Kamdar wish to generate a “Harry Potter Effect” with their debut of the new chess robots. This effect consists of their giant chess board and big chess robots that work to produce a fascinating, inspiring way of teaching kids the significance of robotics. Essentially, they are building the necessary tools to enable this imagination.

Even if you don’t know how to play chess, still stop by the Discovery Science Center and visualize the most exciting game of chess ever!

On Friday, we completed the first week of our Discovery Science Center summer camp: Camp Discovery. Our first two camps were “Summer Smiles” and “Game Masters – Basic Video Game Design.” Here’s a guest post from one of our new summer volunteer, a high school student from Orange County. To view photos from last year’s Camp Discovery, visit our flickr page.

This past week, Camp Discovery successfully launched its first two summer camps. Summer Smiles campers (ages 5 to 6) explored a new world, full of adventure and fun. Friendly and enthusiastic, they engaged in interactive story time with their teacher, plus craft time and fun learning about different creatures! During breaks from the classroom activities, campers are able to explore the interactive exhibits at Discovery Science Center, including Dino Quest. Everyday, our little Summer Smiles kids left Camp Discovery with beautiful crafts and new knowledge of interesting butterflies, caterpillars, and more. They made new friends through the partner-oriented activities and learned to follow directions while having oodles of fun. The Summer Smiles campers surely created unforgettable memories here at Camp Discovery.

 

Beginning Video Game Design (ages 10 to 13) is another summer camp where older children and teens experienced an exciting, fascinating week! The campers explored the world of technology. They learned new skills that enabled them to design cool video games and then had tons of fun playing them! The interactive environment between the kids and the teacher allowed everyone to feel comfortable with each other and maintained a fun, friendly atmosphere. By attending Beginning Video Game Design, these kids made new friends, became more knowledgeable of computers and technology, and had a blast doing it all!

Lovely sunflowers that @AvanteGardens sent us!

 This was just the nicest, most unexpected little occurrence, so I had to blog about it:

We are on twitter, as you may or may not know. You can find us by clicking here: http://www.twitter.com/discoverycube

We joined twitter to try and connect with our local community, and to see what other science centers and museums were up to. We tweet every once in a while, but so far we’ve mostly just watched and listened to what goes on in the twitter world around us.

It has been a lot of fun to read tweets from the people we follow, and we try to pass on (or “retweet”) cool news, special opportunities, discounts, or anything else that we see that might be of interest to our followers. But, you never really know if anyone is listening out there when you tweet something like “June gloom again today. What could we do to brighten this week up a little?” on a random Monday morning.

Well, @AvanteGardens was listening. They are a flower shop in Anaheim, and they are one of our twitter followers. Tuesday afternoon, these beautiful sunflowers showed up at the front desk. The card attached read “Here is the Perfect Antidote for June Gloom. Avante Gardens (one of your Twitter Followers)”

In less than 140 characters, no less!

So thank you, @AvanteGardens, for the lovelies, and thank you, Twitter, for connecting us!

Robot Ribbon Cutting

Originally uploaded by dscinoc

What an amazing morning! Visitors were lined up for the grand opening of our new summer exhibition, Robots&Us. A Boeing Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) cut the ribbon at 10 a.m. and visitors rushed into the exhibition.

Outside in Dino Quest, a FIRST Lego League competition was happening from 10 to 1:45, and winners were awarded medals at 2 in our theater. In our front parking lot, Segway Orange County gave Segway test drives to our visitors. They also offered to give away a free tour to one of our visitors this summer!

It was a great day. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the exhibition’s grand opening. We hope you like Robots&Us as much as we do! If you took any photos or video that you’d like to share? Join us on flickr, facebook, twitter and youtube – we’d love to know: What Did You Discover Today?

http://www.youtube.com/dscinoc
http://www.flickr.com/groups/discoverycube/
http://www.twitter.com/discoverycube

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Santa-Ana-CA/Discovery-Science-Center/21344235880

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

It’s been an amazing few months here at Discovery Science Center. We opened our newest permanent exhibition – Science of Hockey – on April 2nd, and hosted BubbleFest from April 4th to the 19th. Within two weeks, we had set a new record for one day attendance.

Coming up this weekend, we are ready to open the first of two summer exhibitions, Robots and Us. We just today confirmed our lineup of events on Saturday:

10 a.m. A Boeing Robot will cut the ribbon to open the exhibition to the public

10 a.m. – 2 p.m. A FIRST Robotics Competition will take place in our Dino Quest exhibit area

10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Segway Orange County will be here to offer test drives to adults and children 12 and older

It takes a lot to get large exhibitions like Robots and Us unpacked, set up, tested and ready for the thousands of young visitors that will experience it this summer. Our exhibits and operations teams are hard at work getting things ready – and that includes the careful transportation of a certain insect population that is featured inside the exhibition. We’ll let you visit to see what we’re talking about.

If you visit this summer and take photos that you’d like to share, we invite you to be a part of our Flickr Group. Let us know … what did you discover today?