The Crystal Lake Public Library will use grant money to enhance three areas of student services involving math and science.
The library has been awarded a $2,000 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Science Kits for Public Libraries grant. Crystal Lake is one of five libraries statewide to receive the grant, which promotes enriching educational opportunities in math and science for pre-university students.
“The grant will enable us to greatly expand the topics covered in our popular classes so every participant can have a true hands-on science experience,” said Lauren Rosenthal, head of youth services.
Those experiences include patrons being given the opportunity to construct a simple machine, complete circuits, study gravity and motion, and design complex video games on the library’s computers.
Children have also used oatmeal cans and plastic Easter eggs to learn complex topics in an accessible and fun way, Rosenthal said.
The funds will be used to add a Motion by Design wall, modeled after the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s early science gravity and motion activity. The activity challenges young children to find a combination of tracks, tubes and angles to take an object from a chosen starting point to an end.
The library will be able to expand its existing hands-on science classes for elementary-age students into the areas of electricity and physics by purchasing labs and simple machine construction sets. The kits will also be available for checkout at the library.
Students have constructed boomerang cans to study potential and kinetic energy in the past, as well as study DNA from green peas, Rosenthal said.
For junior high and high school students, the library will host video game design workshops in the computer lab using Games Factor 2 software. Those workshops are possible in part due to an additional $1,650 donation of software from Clickteam, which will allow students expand their games to the Internet.
Staff has previously taught computer programming through Scratch, a free educational language developed by MIT.
