Free Family Day

The Redwood Discovery Museum presents an exciting new exhibit, Benjamin Franklin-Inventions, opening on Sunday, May 29 at noon with a FREE Family Day on Sunday, June 5, 2022. Benjamin Franklin had the best sense of adventure and loved expanding his knowledge by actively creating experiments to test his theories. Now, families can immerse themselves in Franklin's discovery process through the Benjamin Franklin-Inventions exhibit. See and experience how Franklin used the three types of heat transfer - radiation, convection, and conduction - to design the Franklin Stove. Explore how lenses project and focus images, power up a lightning storm, feel the charge on a key hanging from a kite string, and make a glass bowl sing. There is an opportunity to solve a nine-digit "Magic Square," one of Franklin's favorite brainteasers. Ken Pinkerton, a board member of the museum and the designer of all the hands-on displays, shares his favorite activity at the museum. "Static electricity machines have been a long-time interest. Franklin's Kite Experiment is my favorite." Participants crank a small Van De Graaff generator to produce a charge that travels down the kite string and charges an old skeleton key. "Touching the key gives the goer a small shock, just like Franklin felt in his famous experiment," says Pinkerton. The museum is holding a Family Free Day on Sunday, June 5, from noon to 4 p.m. Kids have a chance to create a kite. They can also try their hand at carving potatoes so they can make prints like Ben Franklin. It's not quite as fancy as a printing press - but it's still a messy good time! You can find more details at Discovery- museum.org. We hope to see you there. The Benjamin Franklin-Inventions exhibit is a partnership between the Humboldt County Office of Education and KEET-TV, in conjunction with the Ken Burns PBS series Benjamin Franklin. You can watch this series on KEET-TV's World Channel on 6/11 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Corporate funding for BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was provided by Bank of America. Major funding was provided by David M. Rubenstein. Major funding was also provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by The Better Angels Society and its members Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine; University of Pennsylvania; Gilchrist and Amy Berg; Perry and Donna Golkin; Kissick Family Foundation; Deborah and Jon Dawson; Diane and Hal Brierley; McCloskey Family Charitable Trust; Cappy and Janie McGarr; Lavender Butterfly Fund; and Susan and Charles Shanor Charitable Trust.