Mad Science Combines Education and Fun

From bugs to beakers, science classes can be both informative and entertaining for kids of all ages. Mad Science, the world’s leading science enrichment provider, offers a hands-on approach to science that encourages science literacy in children at an age when learning about science is just as vital as reading, writing and arithmetic.

“We want to make something that is fun and sparks the kids’ interest level at a young age,” said Jim Fox, marketing director of Mad Science of West New Jersey. “They can see how science is cool and how it relates to the everyday world.”

About 80,000 children attend the Mad Science after-school classes, parties and summer sessions each year.

The program will be offered this spring through the Moorestown Community School. The class will meet from 3:40 to 4:40 p.m. on Thursdays at Baker Elementary School beginning April 7. The class will also be offered from 3:40 to 4:40 p.m. Wednesdays at Roberts Elementary School. Registration will be online beginning March 11 at madscienceofnj.com.

The class is eight weeks long.

“There is a different set of curricula for each class program,” Fox said. “Each class is led by a 'mad scientist' dressed in a lab coat. The children can participate in group experiments where they are actively involved and can work with the teacher as a volunteer.”

The upcoming eight-week spring session, set to begin in April, will feature a “Color Action” class with an indoor fireworks experiment. The children can also enjoy the “hair-raising” fun of a Van de Graaff generator, which uses electrostatically charged voltages to create little lightning bolts within a metal globe. In the Mad Science “Harnessing Heat” class, children can make their own cotton candy to take home.

“Mad Science gives the kids the opportunity to get their parents involved from a scientific perspective,” Fox said. “Each child gets a take-home sheet at the end of each class that explains what they were doing that day so that their parents can follow along with their progress. It also includes an experiment that the kids can do at home with their parents.”

Along with the take-home sheet, the students also receive a take-home activity that they can work on that goes along with the material they learned in class that day, such as building a rocket for the Mad Science space program.

“It gives them a sense of accomplishment and something they can take home and play with and be proud of,” said Fox.

For more information and to register for classes, visit the Mad Science website.