BUGS AND BEYOND: Many kidlets do love Halloween for the candy-gathering, costume-rocking opportunities, but let's look beyond the October holiday's more obvious cachet with the school-aged set. The eekiest of occasions offers a lot of different educational components, from historical associations to storytelling creativity, and, indeed, there's some science behind Halloween, too. Figure spiders and rats and bugs make frequent cameos in Halloween stories, and they're part of the animal world, amazing to study and behold and watch. The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana will soon encourage young attendees to do just that -- get up-close and cozy with the bug world -- during this year's whimsical and informational Spooky Science exhibit. It's on for a month, from Sunday, Oct. 5 through Sunday, Nov. 2, and things are about to get as buggy as all bug-out at the Cube.
HANDS-ON STATIONS, TOO: Spooky Science isn't just known for going deep into one territory, like the insect world. Several stations are set up in the institution, stations focusing on those grand gourds of the season, pumpkins, and gooey stuff like green goopy pull-at-it slime. Two favorites of the tots include the costume parades and the 3D maze (which, of course, is very science-y, what with the playing with optical illusions and such).
PUMPKINS IN FLIGHT: And if you like to see mega squashy things fly and then go splat, hang tight: The Discovery Science Center is teaming up with Cal State Fullerton to launch pumpkins on Saturday, Nov. 1 on the university's campus. It's a marvel, pretty much, of engineering and comedy in one place. The comedy part? Seeing pumpkins sail by, of course -- laughs are expected and welcome. But do pause to admire the machinery that'll launch the gut-and-seed-filled orbs. It isn't easy to give a pumpkin effortless, airy arc.
