The Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life will welcome PBS Kids “Design Squad” host, Nate Ball, on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 11:30 a.m. in the Xango Mammoth Screen 3-D Theatre. The free event will feature interactive engineering challenges spectators can try from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a special preview on the big screen of PBS’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series “Design Squad’s” upcoming season.
“The event is a joint collaboration between Utah’s PBS affiliate, KUED, Thanksgiving Point, and ‘Design Squad’ producing station WGBH, all of whom seek to provide adventures in learning through hands-on activity and quality interactive programming,” said Blake Wigdahl, Thanksgiving Point’s director of programming.
The Thanksgiving Point event will feature five activity stations with engineering challenges directly from or inspired by the show for young spectators to try and design. These include challenges like “Paddle Power,” a self-paddling boat using a rubber band as its power source, “Kinetic Sculpture,” a six-inch sculpture that moves in the wind without falling over and “Paper Tables,” a table made out of newspaper tubes that’s strong enough to hold a textbook.
The event will also feature a sneak peek of “Design Squad,” which returns for its third season this fall with a fresh cast of six college-aged contestants eager to take on design challenges that task their creative reserves. “Design Squad” is high-energy, high-drama reality TV that lets kids show off their smarts as they design and build working solutions for real-world clients and the grand prize – a $10,000 scholarship from Intel Foundation. In the new season, Nate and the cast will take on design challenges from toymaker Hasbro, WNBA team, the Connecticut Suns, and even the Jamaica Dog Sled Team.
The presentation and many of the activities are free and open to the public. Spectators who wish to stay the day and attend the museum as well, including the new national exhibition, “Magnets, Motors and the Mind,” will enjoy a two-for-one discount with a KUED Member card or can attend at the regular admission price of $10 for adults and $8 for children from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
when Thanksgiving Point will be apart of our huge giveaway!
