Combining education with fun and crafts for children, the Palouse Discovery Science Center offers creativity labs from 10:30–11 a.m. every Friday.

The labs provide an interactive learning environment where both parents and children can participate and learn together, center executive director Meri Joswiak wrote in an email. The labs incorporate STEAM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art and math. 

“Creativity Lab is where art meets science and we believe in a community that supports STEAM,” Joswiak wrote.

There is a different project at the creativity lab every week, center museum supervisor Alex Croft said.

The labs have provided a range of different science topics and crafts, including chemical reactions, clay and natural materials, Joswiak wrote.

Last Friday, the children learned fork art and about snowy owls. They made snowy owls out of forks, using the ends of plastic forks as the owls feathering. The next lab on Jan. 26 will involve experimenting with music and sound, Croft said. 

The topics chosen for the lab usually revolve around the theme of the week, Croft said. Last week was about animals, which is why the lab involved the snowy owl. Other weeks will have another theme, such as space, and the lab that week will follow the theme accordingly.

“It’s intended to introduce children to new tools and techniques that they can use and just, more than anything, use their creative expression during their early years,” Croft said.

Most of the children who attend are aged 2–5, and they come with their caregivers, who participate in the labs with them. Although only two or three families would attend when the creativity labs started in the fall of 2022, the attendance has now increased in size, Croft said. Usually, 20–30 people participate weekly and many of the children are now repeat participants.

“It’s fun to see them interact with their grown-up in a different environment,” Croft said.