Discovery Nights

Join us at the Living Arts & Science Center to experience art and science. On the first Thursday of every month we invite a local artist or scientist to come and show us a little of what they do. Hands-on art activities and frequent StarLab Planetarium shows are also featured!

Suggested Donation:
$2 for 12 – Adult; $1 for children under 12

Map-Making with OutrageGIS!
Thursday, January 5th, 6-8pm

Let’s take a trip! First, we must make a map. Representing mountains, human interests, roadways, and all the rest of our three-dimensional world in a small two-dimensional space is quite a challenge. Fortunately, Boyd Shearer of OutrageGIS, maker of innovative topographical and hiking maps shares his process – and helps everyone to make their own map! Do you think he knows how to get here?

Fabulous Fiber Art with Arturo Sandoval!
Thursday, February 2nd, 6-8pm

Delve into the wonderful world of innovative fiber art during this evening of exploration with internationally recognized artist and educator, Arturo Sandoval! A Professor of Art at the University of Kentucky, Sandoval uses unique materials primarily designed as tapes or films for the packaging and automobile industry. He creatively incorporates these materials into woven, interlaced webs of visual beauty! Embark on a visual journey with the artist as he talks about and shows his art pieces and processes. Also, during Discovery Night, create a piece of your own fiber art to take home!

This event is sponsored by:

Glow in the Dark Chemistry!
Thursday, March 1st, 6-8pm

Explore hands-on chemistry during this evening of light and color chemical discoveries! University of Kentucky chemistry professor, Anne Frances Miller, will teach and demonstrate the chemical and physical processes by which energy can be converted from light to chemical, or the reverse (think fireflies) in two presentations at 6:00 and 7:00! We will also learn how pigments and dyes produce color! Bring a plain T-shirt and your imagination, for an enlightening evening of illuminating demonstrations. We’ll supply the paints for you to create a colorful glow-in-the-dark work of wearable art!

This event is sponsored by:

CSI at the LASC!
Thursday, April 5th, 6-8pm

Calling all detectives! There has been a crime at the LASC and we need your help to solve it! Investigate the crime scene, hear testimonies, and collect evidence! Analyze the evidence in our four CSI labs. Compare inks used by the perpetrator using chromatography! Collect and analyze fingerprints, “blood,” and more! Put the clues together and solve our crime! The Living Arts and Science Center is partnering with The Bluegrass Society of Women Engineers to bring you an interactive evening of “Who Done It?”

Join us for an in-depth look at the traits that allow animals to survive! LASC teachers will present our Discovery Exhibit, Amazing Animal Adaptations, and lead games about bear adaptations. You can touch a giant Hissing Cockroach, learn why corals are animals – and not plants, and examine snake skins under magnification to determine the function of different types of scales. Interpreters will exhibit live animals and discuss their unique adaptations. Create an imaginary creature adapted to a specific environment to take home! Join us – and our animals – for an amazing evening!

StarLab Planetarium

Star hop through the night sky and look at a variety of stories and myths pertaining to the night sky. Starlab shows featured at some Discovery Nights. See monthly descriptions for details.

Current Discovery Exhibit
Amazing Animal Adaptations

• Students will explore unique animal survival methods as they:
• Visit habitats in the tundra, rainforest, temperate forest, desert, deep sea, and several other aquatic ecosystems. Use the non-living characteristics of these ecosystems to explain the environmental pressures that direct animal adaptations.
• Discover the diversity of LIVE ANIMALS including an iguana, tree frogs, snakes, a tarantula, sea anemones, and more!
• Determine which of their characteristics are inherited adaptations and which are learned behaviors.
• Enter the world of nocturnal animals. As your eyes adjust, learn about the adaptations of the creatures of the night, and test your own ability to survive in the dark!
• Imagine you are submerged thousands of feet below sea level, where no sunlight penetrates. Explore the animals and the ecosystems that survive without the sun!
• Travel back in time to learn about the changes in environment that caused extinction of animals whose adaptations were not suited to the new situations.
• View animals in habitats around the world and observe their responses to outside stimuli.
• Search the forest, desert, and ocean for camouflaged animals and others sporting the bright colors of warning.
• Describe differences in feathers from various species – and from the same bird. Then discover other adaptations that allow birds to fly.