LOGAN — Just about the time your kids' holiday gifts will be running out of batteries, "Faraday's Holiday Event" will offer a way to get charged up again.
The festival of art and science will offer hands-on activities for kids (and kids at heart) of all ages. It is named for Michael Faraday, whose discovery of Faraday's Law allows us to power homes and factories by creating electricity from spinning magnets.
In the mid-1800s, Faraday would hold an event during the holidays and invite all of the children of London to see his new discoveries and discoveries of his associates at the Royal Society.
The modern holiday event will take place Dec. 28, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Whittier Center, 290 N. 400 East, Logan.
It is sponsored by the StarHouse Discovery Center Children's Museum, a noprofit organization working to establish a hand-on children's museum in Cache Valley by June 2012.
Faraday's Holiday Event will raise money for that as well as for outreach programs in the schools.
The event will feature activities such as stained-glass star art that visitors can make and take home, watching a pendulum make art in the sand, building and flying unique paper airplanes, and star-gazing through telescopes (weather permitting).
Melvin the Robot Arm will be at the event. A short keynote address will be given by Shane Larson, an astronomy professor and "Storyteller of the Stars" from Utah State University.
Additional activities will be presented by Campbell Scientific, science organizations from USU, Valley Dance Ensemble and the American West Heritage Center.
Suggested donations are 50 cents for kids under 12; $1 for kids 12-18; and $2 for adults. Additional donations are also welcomed.
For more information, visit www.starhousediscovery.org.
— Carma Wadley