SPRD, Science Club will host exhibit next spring

Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) and the newly formed Sister's Science Club have partnered to bring a popular scientific exhibit to Sisters next spring.

Brain Teasers 2 is an interactive exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The exhibit consists of five stations with four sit-down puzzles at each station. There are block designs, mathematical conundrums, and hidden mazes. The solutions require not only focused attention, but test-retest strategies, rational thinking, mathematics and logic - much of the stuff of science.

Most important, they're fun - fun for kids of all ages. Left alone, first-graders usually run from station to station without solving anything. With guidance from teachers, parents or older students they soon get hooked on the discovery process itself, perhaps the most important step in scientific inquiry.

As they mature into fourth-graders, they spend more time at each station and share their experience with classmates. Children who visit the exhibit several times will move beyond the initial gee-whiz thrill of sensation to explore new brain strategies that involve hypotheses and modeling, which lead to trial-and-error execution.

Brain Teasers 2 will be located at the Coffield Community Center at SPRD from February through April. After a period of orientation for teachers, staff and volunteers, the exhibits will be open for scheduled visits from grades K-12 in the schools. In addition, the exhibits will be open to the public after hours and on some weekends. Parents who bring their children will find these puzzles enjoyable and engaging, but who will be teaching whom?