Intrepid Museum Goes Fully Virtual With Kids Week

The floating NYC museum is closed to the public but has a full slate of February break fun for the kids to do virtually.

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Facebook page

You might not be able to visit the epic floating Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York harbor right now as its still closed due to COVID restrictions, but they still have you covered for February break. If the kids are off for February break, the Intrepid has you covered with virtual events for them to attend while you still manage to work from home. The weekly festival is entirely virtual this year, and is designed for all ages to learn more about STEAM, with online demos, live animal shows, workshops, musical performances and more.

And each day has a different theme from Space & Science to Music & Arts to Safari & Nature. With performances by the Rockettes, fuzzy animals from the Bronx Zoo and tours of the space pavilion. You can even watch live as NASA prepares for the Perseverance rover to touch down on Mars. All events are completely free (with the exception of a few members only events), but you’ll need to pre-register for the days you are interested in. Here’s the full lineup of scheduled events.

Monday, February 15: Safari & Nature

10:15am: American Museum of Natural History Presents How did Triceratops get their horns and frill? Learn the secrets of horned dinosaurs!

11:00am: Intrepid Museum Education Program: High Flying Design Discuss the parts of a plane and how nature influences shape and design. Educators will demonstrate the four forces of flight, and participants will experiment with these concepts before creating their own simple flying machines. Fundamental concepts such as the four forces of flight, Bernoulli’s principle and aerodynamics will be discussed.

Noon: Two by Two Zoo Presents: Wild World of Animals Two by two hopping through with leaping lemurs and hopping kangaroos! Let us virtually bring the animals to you!

1:00pm: The Climate Museum In this workshop, Climate Museum educators will invite kids to create climate art, use their drawings as conversation-starters about the climate impacts that matter most to them, and share their art with others.

2:00pm: Meet the Illustrators: Brigette Barrager and Rachel Ignotofsky, and Mindfulness Expert for Children: Kira Willey Families will be able to follow along as author and mindfulness expert Kira Willey (Peaceful Like a Panda) leads viewers on a mindfulness breathing exercise, followed by back-to-back illustrator lessons from Brigette Barrager (Welcome Flower Child) and Rachel Ignotofsky (What’s Inside a Flower?). They will share some of their previous illustrations and present a live drawing.

 Click here to pre-register for the day.

 Tuesday, February 16: Safari & Nature

10:15am: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Presents: Wild Antarctica What adaptations does a species need to survive in Antarctica? Students will learn how species use special teeth, interlocking feathers, projectile vomiting and very deep dives to protect themselves in this wild and unique environment.

11:00am: Intrepid Museum Education Program: Camouflage: Now You See it, Now You Don’t Wait…is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes, it’s a plane! Learn how animals have influenced military camouflage by exploring the ship and our aircraft collection! Then, create your own camouflaged creation that can hide in “plane” sight!

Noon: Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo Presents: Wild Adventure Join Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo on a journey to discovery! Learn about incredible species from all over the world and even in your own backyard. Together we will find out what makes them unique and how we can help them thrive.

12:30pm: (MEMBERS ONLY) Kids Week Exclusive: Two by Two Zoo Presents – Wild World of Animals Two by Two is hopping through with leaping Lemurs, hopping Kangaroos, and more. Let us virtually bring the animals to you!

1:00pm: Wildlife Conservation Society Join the Bronx Zoo for an exciting live animal demonstration!

2:00pm: Billion Oyster Project Presents: Oysters! What’s really inside? Students explore the external and internal anatomy of an oyster through observation, video dissection and a fun coloring puzzle challenge!

3:00pm: Intrepid Adventures: African Americans in Space Join us in celebrating Black History Month as we examine the role of African Americans in space exploration!

 Click here to pre-register for the day.

 Wednesday, February 17: Music & Art

 10:15am: Ballet Hispánico School of Dance Presents: Los Pasitos: Early Childhood Program The program will feature a dance class and will focus on developing coordination, spatial awareness, and musicality, with an emphasis on each child’s individual self-expression.

 11:00am: Intrepid Museum Education Program: Golden Record: Messages from Earth In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager space probes and included a golden record with recordings from home. Discover the art, photographs, and music that can be found on this interstellar mixtape, and create a time capsule to send your own message to the future!

Noon: The Radio City Rockettes® Tune in to see and talk to a Radio City Rockette® as they teach choreography from the classic Christmas Spectacular® number “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers!”

 12:30pm: (MEMBERS ONLY) Kids Week Exclusive: Talk with Children’s Book author and illustrator Lincoln Peirce In this members-only meet-and-greet, meet Lincoln Peirce, New York Times bestselling author and cartoonist. Join us for a session of graphic novel illustration and a discussion of Peirce’s book Max and the Midknights!

1:00pm: Meet the Illustrators: Laura Knetzger, Lauren Castillo, and Judd Winick Meet illustrators Laura Knetzger (Bug Boys), Lauren Castillo (Our Friend Hedgehog), and Judd Winick (Hilo series) and tune in for their live drawings!

 2:00pm: Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents: The Duke’s Train AdventurevJazz at Children and their caregivers will go on a musical adventure. They will discover the music of Duke Ellington and explore different ways to make music together. Please come prepared with the following materials: 

Click here to pre-register for the day.

Thursday, February 18: Space & Science

10:15am: U.S. Space Force Presents Space Time with a Space Guardian: a STEM education program aimed at 2nd – 6th grade students. The program teaches kids about how space is part of their daily lives, and covers exciting topics like space launches, satellites, space debris, the history of the US in space, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and the importance of a solid STEM education if they are interested working in any sector of the space enterprise.

11:00am: Intrepid Education Program: Lunar Landers What might be difficult about landing on the moon? Explore Intrepid’s connection to the Space Race and analyze the result of the engineering design process that made landing on the moon possible. Lunar Landers Activity Materials: Disposable cup, recyclable materials, tape, scissors, two coins or other small objects.

Noon: NASA Presents: 3D Printing with Materials Engineer Tracie Prater This talk will cover NASA’s in-space manufacturing project, which is developing 3D printing and recycling technologies to reduce the number of parts and materials we have to launch on space missions. 

1:00pm: American Society of Civil Engineers Interactive Bridge Workshop: Learn the basics of bridge engineering and look at a day in the life of a civil engineer with members of ASCE. Afterwards, build a paper bridge and test out the strongest shapes for construction!

 2:00pm: Rube Goldberg A reading from Rube Goldberg’s Simple, Normal, Humdrum School Day with author Jennifer George (Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter) and illustrations by Ed Steckley. Ed will draw inventions that the kids come up with as they are watching.

 3:00pm: Intrepid Adventures: Journey to Space Students will get a tour of the Space Shuttle Pavilion, home of the space shuttle Enterprise. An educator will discuss the Mercury-Atlas 7 and Gemini III missions that occurred during the Space Race, including Intrepid’s role as the primary recovery vessel for both NASA missions. Students will learn about the vacuum of space and why astronauts need spacecraft and spacesuits when they venture into Earth’s orbit and beyond.

 3:55pm: Tune in for NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Landing Watch as the team prepares for the Perseverance rover to touch down on Mars. During landing, the rover plunges through the thin Martian atmosphere, slowing down from 12,000 mph to about 2 mph as it is lowered to the surface with the famous “skycrane manueuver.” (Time is subject to change and the landing may happen earlier or later)

 5:30pm: Intrepid Museum Presents: Virtual Astronomy Live! Preparing for Launch: Assembling the Artemis Rocket Hear from Engineer Abdiel Santos Galindo as he talks about the assembly of the Artemis 1 rocket and takes visitors on a virtual tour of how the rocket is being built!

Click here to pre-register for the day.

Friday, February 19: Space & Science

10:15am: Robofun: Video Game Coding Workshop Kids can watch an entire video game being made from beginning to end using a software called Scratch. Discover how you can put together pieces of code to structure your own games, from a “maze” game to a “platform” game, to their own version of “Space Invaders.”

11:00am: Intrepid Museum Education Program: Star Stories For millennia, people have gazed at the night sky and created stories about the pictures they see there. These same stars and constellations also allowed sailors to find their way back to port. Using images of the night sky, stories from different cultures and examples of simple navigation tools, a Museum educator will help participants view the sky in a whole new way.

11:15am: (MEMBERS ONLY) Kids Week Exclusive: Meet and Greet with NASA Astronaut Stephen G. Bowen (Captain, U.S. Navy) Join us for a private meet-and-greet with NASA Astronaut Stephen G. Bowen (Captain, U.S. Navy). Captain Bowen is the first Submarine Officer selected by NASA as a Mission specialist. He has logged more than 40 days in space.

Noon: Presentation by NASA Astronaut Stephen G. Bowen Hear from NASA Astronaut Stephen G. Bowen as he talks about his time in space.

1:00pm: Science Friyay Activities with Theanne Griffith, Bill Doyle, Jennifer Holm, and John Rocco Join us for a live science experiment with Theanne Griffith (The Magnificent Makers) followed by an additional live Escape This! activity played out by authors Jennifer Holm (The Lion of Mars), John Rocco (How We Got to the Moon), and Bill Doyle (Escape This Book!).

2:00pm: Kerbal Space Academy Learn the basics of designing and launching a rocket using a physics simulation game from the Kerbal Space Program.

3pm: Virtual Tour of the Intrepid Museum Join a Museum educator on a virtual tour of the Intrepid Museum using the Google Arts and Culture site to explore the history of the ship and the crew who served from 1943-1974.

 Click here to pre-register for the day.

Events and performance schedules are subject to change, so check www.intrepidmuseum.org/kidsweek for updates.

 

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