Throughout their time at IfSpace, many of our students are inspired to begin projects of their own inspired by the activities and opportunities around them. Open Lab exists for this purpose – uninterrupted time in the lab to make, scheme, design and build with friends. IfSpace’s Big Spring Project this year is the design and construction of our Intra-Class Vacuum Tube system, and Open Lab kids are invited to join in this fun project! Because 2 hours of Open Lab is material intensive, there is a $30 semester supply fee for this class. Please note that this is a 2-hour class.

Patience, a steady hand, attention to detail – if this is an area where you’d like to see your kids grow, this just might be a great fit for them. Our class will be working together to make miniature models out of recycled materials, training the eye to see someone else’s trash in a new light! This is a great opportunity for imaginative play, fine motor practice, and plain old fun. Miniature building is a favorite IfSpace activity anyway; we’re happy to give it its own place on the schedule!

In this class we will be exploring clean energy and creativity. We will be doing some experiments centered around renewable energy, and then we will focus specifically on solar energy. Our end goal will be to attend the Energy Whiz Olympics as a team/teams with our machines/inventions. The Olympics are held at the Florida Solar Energy Center on the second Saturday in May. Based on student interest we would choose from the following three events: Critter Comfort Cottage: This is a real-world, engineering and communications challenge, which showcases energy efficient building design and construction, based on small critters. (no actual critters needed 😉 )

Energy Transfer Machine: A competition that was developed to provide opportunities for students to explore hydrogen power through a hands-on engineering component. The students show understanding of hydrogen through a creative “timing” apparatus built with several ‘Rube Goldberg’ type steps.

Solar Energy Cook-Off: The Solar Energy Cook-off is a solar cooker competition. The teams demonstrate the performance of their solar heating devices, that they have designed and built by cooking an original dish of food created for the competition. Each solar cooker and recipe is judged by a panel of experts.

Meant for the older beginner, this class will progress from an unplugged approach to Computer Science that introduces the basics of logic, functions and variables to beginning projects in C, and perhaps other languages based on student goals and interests. This is a great class for students possibly interested in joining next year’s FIRST Tech Challenge team, or looking to become ‘code literate’ in their daily life. There is a $40 supply fee for this class, and students are encouraged to bring their own laptops if they have them.

Students will mix a variety of traditional art techniques with unusual items in order to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. The classes is often messy and always child led/initiated!