MOSAC Academies
Take a deep dive with our Academy Programs! These full-day courses are unique to MOSAC, allowing you and your students to learn through our inquiry-based approach in engaging and interactive ways. Our full-day themed programs include an exhibit tour, a digital dome show in the UC Davis Multiverse Theatre, labs, and engineering challenges!
To book an Academy or field trip, call us at 916 674-5000 or email us at education@visitmosac.org.
Programs
Physical Sciences
Bright Ideas — Solar Innovations
Design, build, and test a device that runs on solar energy power in order to help astronauts live on Mars.
Take your students to Mars in an out-of-this-world exploration of energy generation and use. This full-day adventure builds students’ understanding of energy concepts, including renewable energy, while strengthening their skills in experimentation, design, and engineering. They’ll take basic concepts of energy and see how they are applied through interactive exhibits in the Destination Space and Powering Change galleries, and bring it altogether with an exciting engineering challenge: Design, build, and test a device that runs on solar energy power in order to help astronauts live on Mars.
Students will …
- Learn about kinetic versus potential energy
- Demonstrate energy transfer and electricity generation principles
- Construct solutions, apply data, test, and revise designs and construction
- Develop and test solutions to real world problems
- Explore opportunities in Solar Energy: How do we harness it and convert it to other uses? Which aspects of solar design and technology are key to effective electricity generation?
Life Science
Ecosystem Investigations
What do we need to live on Mars? Students will explore the concepts of ecosystems with engaging lab activities.
What do we need to live on Mars? It all starts with understanding how ecosystems provide balance for living things, including the food we would need in outer space. Students will explore the concepts of ecosystems with engaging lab activities, then interact with related exhibits in the Destination Space and Nature Detectives galleries. They’ll bring all this new knowledge together through an exciting design challenge: taking on the role of engineers to test out a balanced ecosystem on Mars.
Students will …
- Learn about ecosystems and how organisms are connected in food chains and food webs
- Be introduced to trophic levels in an energy pyramid, and understand how the sun is the main source of energy in an ecosystem
- Observe the effects of human actions on the environment, and the impact forest fires and invasive species have on an ecosystem
- Use their senses and tools to investigate an ecosystem
- Apply their knowledge about ecosystems to engineer a biodome on Mars
