LIFTING ONE TO THE NIGHT SKY Drink & Think science program continues today
Adults interested in astronomy, science or just wanting an evening of learning about the Perseids meteor shower will get that chance tonight at a program at Ozark Bath House.
Mid-America Science Museum is partnering with Hot Springs National Park for a program called Drink & Think from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. today, its third adult-oriented science program of the year. The program will focus on the Perseids meteor shower, which occurs annually from mid-July into late August and is expected to peak today and Friday.
“The national park will do a short presentation on constellations and looking at the urban night sky, which is a program that they’re trying to grow at the national park,” Diane LaFollette, the museum’s chief executive officer, said.
“And then our educators will be doing activities on the constellations, so it’ll be hands-on activities. I think there’s a make and take activity where people can make something and take it home, about the planets and the constellations. So it’ll be a little bit more interactive than the first one. A little bit different, but still just as much fun and just as informative, and it is for everybody that’s 21 and older, so it’s an adult crowd,” she said.
Tickets for the event are $25 or $20 for members of the museum or the Friends of Hot Springs National Park, and the cost includes hors d’oeuvres and two drink tickets for beer or root beer from Superior Bathhouse Brewery.
The museum started the Drink & Think series as a way to partner with Hot Springs National Park and bring more adult-oriented programs to the public.
LaFollette and HSNP Superintendent Laura Miller had been in talks to partner for programs shortly after Miller was named the park’s superintendent, but their plans were quickly put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was pre-COVID when we started talking, and (we) kept trying to come up with some viable ideas where we could collaborate on educational programming and exhibits and things like that,” LaFollette said. “We kicked around several different ideas, but before anything took off, the pandemic hit, which has delayed a lot of things, our projects included.”
As things started to reopen, “we started talking again and came up with this idea of having adult evening events in the Ozark Bath House,” she said.
While the museum is looking to cater programs to adults, Miller is looking to have all of the bath houses filled with businesses or programs, LaFollette said.
“So it kind of worked out just beautifully that we would have programs on occasion in the Ozark Bath House as one of the last bath houses that are empty at the time, and we can go in there and do programming,” she said. “And it’s very accessible to people downtown but also to tourists, and that audience is harder for us to get to come out here at night. So it’s kind of a nice marriage of the two organizations.”
The two organizations were able to get their first program set for April 14, and they focused on the science of making beer.
“Rose Schweikhart from Superior Bathhouse Brewery did an awesome program on the science of beer, and there’s so much science in making beer,” LaFollette said. “It was incredible. … It was sold out. We have a certain capacity that was allowed in the bath house, and we sold all the tickets we could sell. And it was just this wonderful educational PowerPoint, and it was hilarious on how to brew beer. And she also provided beverages and food for all the visitors that bought tickets to the event.”
In June, the museum held its second event at Bridge Street Live, doing activities about sound and other science topics during the event.
The series will continue on Oct. 13 with a program on water quality monitoring in the national park before wrapping up the first series on Dec. 8.
“We’re gonna go outside the bath house and see how they monitor the quality of the water going through the bath houses, which is actually pretty cool,” LaFollette said. “So it’s called a spring box tour, and then the museum activities will be about water filtering and how different filters affect the quality of the water we drink.”
On Dec. 8 they will have a program “about the geology of the hot water going through the mountain. And the museum activity is about … the cycle of rocks from sand to boulder and back again.”
For more information about the programs or to purchase tickets, visit https://bit.ly/3vQDYFw.