See the World at Discovery Center
The Discovery Center hosts Festival Fridays each Friday from 8:30 a.m.–12 p.m. for area schoolchildren to experience hands-on activities and fun.
Upcoming themes include:
Jan. 14 Splash and Flash: learn about light and shadow, friction, animals, water and fossils.
Jan. 21 and 28 Martin Luther King Celebration: learn about black history, travel on the Underground Railroad and make crafts
Feb. 4 and 11 Chinese New Year: learn about food, crafts, clothing and traditions of China
Feb. 18 and 25 Earth and Space Science: visit the planetarium, learn about space travel, planets, phases of the moon and weather
The Discovery Center, located at 502 SE Broad St., can always use volunteers on Festival Fridays. For more information, contact Leslie Walker at lwalker@discoverycenteronline.org or (615) 890-2300.
A Monsterous Aquisition for MTSU
MTSU’s Mineral, Gem and Fossil Museum has a new mascot . . . well, really a monstrous new teaching aide. The model of an allosaurus, a dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic period, stands six feet tall and is 10 feet long. In the prehistoric world, the allosaurus was a large bipedal predator with a large skull and dozens of sharp teeth. It averaged 28 feet in length, with some reaching nearly 40 feet.
Dr. Albert Ogden, professor of geosciences and curator of the museum, says hundreds of elementary- and middle-school classes tour the museum every year, and the facility also has served as a valuable resource for Boy Scouts working to earn their merit badge in geology.
“I’ve been trying to add more fossils. We have some dinosaur eggs, some real dinosaur bones, and just recently we added a cast of a woolly rhino skull,” added Alan Brown, geosciences instructor and museum director.
The museum also contains a black lit room containing various minerals. Samples come from every state in the Union and from more than 50 countries around the world.
The museum is located in Room 122 of Ezell Hall on the MTSU campus. It is open on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m., and free visits can be arranged during the week by calling (615) 898-5075 or e-mailing adbrown@mtsu.edu.
Don’t Drink and Drive, Drink and Draw
Art Life hosts Drink and Draw at Mellow
Mushroom, a creative and fun art competition, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22.
The event will consist of three rounds with a different theme each round. The artist with the best interpretation wins $10 house cash for food or drinks. You don’t have to have the best drawing skills, just the best creative interpretation of the drawing themes, which will remain a
mystery until the event.
The group will meet in the magic bus on the stage. Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers is located at 2955 S. Rutherford Blvd. and offers half price appetizers after 9 p.m.
Youth Leadership Program Accepting Students
Applications for the 2011–2012 class for Youth Leadership Rutherford are now being accepted through Feb. 4. The class brochure and application are available at the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce at 3050 Medical Center Parkway or online at rutherfordbep.org/ylr.
YLR is open to 32 high school students who will be juniors and seniors in the 2011–2012 school year. It is an energetic and challenging civic education initiative that seeks to open the minds of students to the issues and concerns of their community and enable them to become more visionary leaders. Students engage in monthly topic-specific seminar days where they are introduced to the opportunities and challenges within Rutherford County. Among the topics covered are teamwork skills, business and economic development, government, industry and agriculture, human needs and services, education, arts and service.
At the end of the year, students use their experiences to design and implement their own group projects to meet a
tangible need in the county. Graduates from Youth Leadership Rutherford find their experiences help prepare them for post-high school education and career endeavors, as well as give them a more defining sense of their own personal strengths, interests and goals that have served them well in school, family, church and job positions.
The program is open to students in all Rutherford County public, private and home schools, and is an approved activity of the Rutherford County Board of
Education. For more information, contact Lee Rennick or Stephanie Brackman at (615) 893-6565.
