Homework Adds to Trip to Discovery Center

Science-phobic parents who want to take their children to the new Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana can relax.

You don’t have to do any homework ahead of time--although, center staff members say, there are a few easy preparatory steps that can be taken to make the experience as enjoyable and educational as possible.

First, make a phone call. So many people are expected for Saturday’s opening and the first few weeks afterward that admission will be by reservation only. Here’s the number: (714) 542-2823.

A thousand people will be admitted at each of two opening-day sessions, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. A crowd can definitely diminish a visit here.

“Our exhibits are highly interactive, and we want to give everyone an optimum experience. It would be terrible for people to have to stand around and just watch,” said Melissa Centeno, marketing director.

Next, suggests Janet Yamaguchi, vice president for education, you and your child can check out the center’s Web page (https://www.go2dsc.org). It gives an idea of what a science center is all about.

The site includes easy do-at-home science projects that use a lemon to explain how batteries work and answer the question “How do airplanes fly?” with a piece of paper, a straw, a string and a hair dryer.

Descriptions accompany pictures of some of the center’s 100-plus interactive exhibits, which cover physical and earth sciences and technology.

The tornado exhibit, which allows visitors to redirect the pattern of an 8-foot-tall twister, can be viewed on the Web site, along with the cloud-ring maker. In one of Yamaguchi’s favorites--a technology exhibit called “Recollections”--a hidden camera takes the visitor’s picture in a three-sided room and translates the shape into moving, colored pictures on a wall-sized screen.

Previewing some of the exhibits is likely to get children excited about going to the center while reducing uncomfortable feelings of unfamiliarity and increasing their understanding of their experience.

Technology exhibits may prove to be the most popular.

Finger-painting at home will introduce younger children to the color-mixing lessons of the center’s electronic finger-painting exhibit, in which colors are chosen by touching a screen. Kids can finger-paint across large screens set very low to the floor.

Yamaguchi predicts that the 12- to 17-year-old group will go for video animation in a big way. The exhibit lets visitors move toys and bendable figures while a camera takes pictures of each move to create video animation; 40 different sounds can be added. Beforehand, visitors in this age group might watch a stop-action movie, such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” After the video screening, discuss the painstaking process by which such movies are made.

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It’s hard to prepare for some of the exhibits. Still, families can do a trial run at Launch Pad, the center’s preview site. Admission is free at the Crystal Court site in Costa Mesa, and children and parents can experiment with 13 interactive exhibits.

Exhibits at Launch Pad include a morph machine, in which a participant lines his face up on a computer monitor that takes a picture and drops it onto an animal body on another screen. A sound-wave exhibit involves a vibrating tub of water and a sound-adjustment dial. Lower-register sounds makes the water look like raindrops are falling on it; higher sounds turn into bigger rings in the water, said clerk Liz Arcalas.

Launch Pad’s most popular exhibit, on angular momentum, lets visitors stand on a merry-go-round and experience what skaters do to spin faster or slower.

Whatever you do to prepare for a science center visit--whether trying easy science experiments or reading pop-up books on planet Earth--it should be fun.

“I wouldn’t do a whole lot of preparation beforehand,” Yamaguchi said. “The trick is getting [kids] excited and then getting them to be the ones to say, ‘I want to learn more.’ ”

Once that happens, there’s a lot of follow-up you can do. Lorry Rogan, Discovery’s retail and admissions manager, selected some books and science kits that go along with the current exhibits:

* “The Science Book for Girls and Other Intelligent Beings” (Kids Can Press) explores science as part of everyday life, covers careers in science and lets readers exercise their brains with mind-bending puzzles and games. For girls 8 to 12. ($8.95).

* “The Science of Sound Kit” (Scientific Explorer) lets users build a model ear, construct a stethoscope, make a flute and discover the connection between music and math. Ages 9 to adult. ($23.95).

* “I Didn’t Know You Can Jump Higher on the Moon,” by Kate Petty, connects with the center’s Exploration Station and offers amazing facts about space. Ages 8 to 12. ($9.95).

* “Seashore Scientific Explorer Kit” has everything needed to collect specimens from tide pools and identify marine animals and plants. Ages 7 to adult. ($15.95).

The kit complements the natural animation exhibit, in which seashells, starfish, leaves and rocks are placed on a table and a camera takes a picture of the collage every few seconds. By spinning a dial, the viewer can see what happened on that table six hours ago or a few minutes ago.

Complementary, easy-to-understand science materials can also be found at teacher supply stores.

Former teacher Myrna Greer, now manager of Teacher’s Pet in Orange, recommends the books “Floating in Space” (Harper-Collins, $4.95) and “Amazing Earth Model” (Scholastic, $12.95) on geology and “Earthquakes and Volcanoes” (Usborne, $6.95).

Teachers who plan a field trip at Discovery Science Center--15,000 students have already been signed up--will receive packets with science activities to prepare students for what they will see and for the vocabulary used in the exhibits, Yamaguchi said.

The “Who Am I?” packet on human perception includes a recipe for creating a potato-head brain by mixing potato flakes, dry white sand, tap water and red food color. The result weighs about 3 pounds, the size of the real thing, and has a consistency similar to living brain tissue.

“If we could hold a real brain that hasn’t been preserved, it would feel very much like this,” the packet says.

Sounds messy. Kids should love it.