Science Center of Iowa

You won't be seeing recycled plastic bricks in LEGO product boxes right away, but this move represents a huge shift toward sustainable product design! A LEGO spokesperson said: We know kids care about the environment and want us to make our products more sustainable. Even though it will be a while before they will be able to play with bricks made from recycled plastic, we want to let kids know we’re working on it and bring them along on the journey with us. Experimentation and failing is an important part of learning and innovation. Just as kids build, unbuild and rebuild with LEGO bricks at home, we’re doing the same in our lab.

Have you ever noticed a lack of blue fireworks? Turns out some colors are harder to create than others!

Impress your friends and family this weekend by knowing what gives fireworks their colors. Check out this video for the scoop!

Iowa native Peggy Whitson will head back to space... this time on a commercial mission!

Everyone has biases. It’s natural for our brains to develop shortcuts to make quick assumptions about the world around us. But when biases are left unchecked, they can have serious consequences becoming entrenched in our systems and our patterns of life. We strive to present our audiences with new ideas and research that stretch their ways of thinking and encourage thoughtful discourse. That’s why we’re excited to host The Bias Inside Us, an exhibition from @sitesExhibit...ions that examines implicit bias through the lens of science, history and culture. See this powerful exhibit at SCI through August 8 and learn how you can #RetrainYourBrain. Details at www.sciowa.org/bias

We're excited to partner with the Des Moines Symphony to bring you an at-home concert and science engagement opportunity this Sunday!

It's Pollinator Week, and we're celebrating by giving you a peek behind our pollinator efforts! Did you know that SCI has an active observation bee hive? Our volunteer beekeepers recently got the hive all set up for the summer. We also have a new terrace garden that supports our pollinator pals with plants like milkweed, dill, parsley and marigolds! Why celebrate pollinators? Because birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles and other small mammals that pollinate plants are res...ponsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food! They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce. (CHALLENGE: Can you spot the queen bee in the close-up picture of our bees? She's marked with a white dot on her back!) #PollinatorWeek

We’re happy to announce that we have received a $10,000 grant from Bayer Fund that will support not only to our organization but also to the community we serve through the development of "Making Tech Connections," a professional development program that equips teachers with tools to help their students develop 21st Century employment skills in computing, algorithms and programming. Learn more at https://bit.ly/3qEDWNc

Immerse yourself in the night sky under the 50-foot, 360-degree domed screen of the Star Theater planetarium the largest and most advanced planetarium in the state! View daily program schedules and plan your visit at www.sciowa.org/calendar

Time to update your geography knowledge: Earth has a new ocean!

TOMORROW: Explore SCI in the evening, then join us for a FREE movie in partnership with Capital City Pride! SCI's exhibits will be open late from 5:30-8:30 pm (admission required) followed by a free screening of Disney Pixar's "Coco." [Note: We had planned to be under the stars on the south lawn, but due to inclement weather, we will be moving the movie indoors.] So bring a blanket, grab some FREE popcorn and enjoy the family-friendly film!... Reserve your SCI admission at https://bit.ly/3qlpGsM

Fourth of July Fun Fact: Different metal salts make different colors of fireworks. Can you identify the metals that make these fireworks silver, green, red, blue and gold?

Today is #AsteroidDay! Did you know there are currently 1,097,558 known asteroids in our solar system? So what exactly is an asteroid? And how is it different from a comet, a meteoroid and a meteor? An asteroid is a small rocky object that orbits the Sun. ... Comets orbit the Sun, like asteroids, but comets are made of ice and dustnot rock. When a piece of an asteroid or comet breaks off, the small piece is called a meteoroid. And when a meteoroid comes close enough to Earth and enters Earth’s atmosphere, it vaporizes and turns into a meteor: a streak of light in the sky. Learn more about asteroids, comets and meteors here --> https://go.nasa.gov/3jvBxmM

We recently caught up with Hello Iowa to talk about what's happening at SCI this summer!